The article analyzes aspects of Rafael Gutiérrez Girardot’s literary criticism on Frankfurt School’s historical materialism and his contribution to the understanding of this philosophical current in Latin America. In the Reading of this theoretical trend, artistic and philological keys emerge, put into practice by some German Authors in the face of the Marxist method, questioning the degree of correspondence between revolutionary theory and praxis, as well as their consistency over time. In the interpretative project undertaken by the Colombian philosopher, however, the possibility of a methodical historical epistemology that surpasses linear modernity, as well as the conception of a new critical theory in which philosophy and poetry converge, can be glimpsed. © 2023 Universita di Trieste. All rights reserved.