Erich Auerbach's seminal Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, a classic of literary theory, brought into high relief the fundamental difference that exists between the two basic approaches to the textual representation of reality in Western culture. These two styles were archetypically displayed in Homer's poems and in the Old Testament, respectively. Auerbach's differentiation is the starting point for Bandera's insightful work, which expands and develops this argument.

Cesáreo Bandera is Professor Emeritus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, former Director of the Program in Comparative Literature at SUNY at Buffalo, and former President of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion.