Verfehlungen: Hans Blumenberg and the United States

This article explores the fate of Hans Blumenberg's work to date in the English-speaking world and asks whether this “missed encounter” is simply contingent—that is, might have been otherwise—or if there is something about his thought, method, and materials that makes his transfer from a German to an American or Anglophone context particularly difficult. Looking at Paradigms for a Metaphorology and The Legitimacy of the Modern Age, the article examines the timing and framing of translation, as well as the unique difficulties that Blumenberg's work poses for the modern theory reader.