Undergraduate Seminar on the Theory and Practice of Reading and Interpretation

This course is on the intellectual history, theory, and practice of the art of interpretation, with a focus on the story of the Tower of Babel and its interpretations. We will work our way through texts about Babel as well as canonical texts of hermeneutics, ending the course with literary treatments of Babel, babelisation, and communicative confusion. Readings will include: ancient Greek mythology, the (King James) Bible, the Book of Jubilees, Pseudo-Philo, Josephus, Baruch, Sibylline Oracles, Sefer HaYashar, St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, Walter Benjamin, Heidegger, Jacques Derrida, Emmanuel Levinas, Wilfred Bion, Jean Laplanche, Gadamer, Gilles Deleuze, Toni Morrison, David Foster Wallace, Primo Levi, Jorge Luis Borges, Paul Auster, and A.S. Byatt (subject to revision).