The course will focus on philosophies of history and the historico-philosophical underpinnings of modern (post-Enlightenment) literary criticism and thought. We will pay particular attention to the interpretive tradition known as hermeneutics and its implications for translation, as well as for philological and as socio-historical approaches to literature. Readings will include: Theodor Adorno, “Lyric Poetry and Society” and Theory of New Music (selections); Erich Auerbach, Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature (selections); James Baldwin, The Devil Finds Work; Walter Benjamin, Origins of German Tragic Drama (selections); W. E. B. Dubois, The Souls of Black Folk; Clement Greenberg, “Abstract Art”; Reinhart Koselleck, Futures Past: On the Semantics of Historical Time (selections); Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Savage Mind (selections); Friedrich Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals; Michael Taussig, Defacement