Scan barcode
chloe_valerie_jane's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
andthyme's review against another edition
5.0
A fascinating disquisition on the practices of visual and verbal arts and in what ways their capacities for representation differ (if you're not interested in the intricacies of the dating of the specific Laocoön statue, though, take my advice and skip the last couple of chapters - the aesthetic essay that makes up the rest of the book stands on its own perfectly well without it).
msand3's review against another edition
5.0
I have recently taken a renewed interest in German literature, of which I was briefly obsessed in my mid-twenties, so I'm revisiting some texts from Lessing that I browsed years ago, now with a better understanding of both his place in late Enlightenment critical discourse and in German literary history. I had read portions of Laocoon previously in my years doing media studies, but this is first time I've read the entire book.
Lessing's book-length essay, which he rather humbly describes as a collection of "notes," is one of the first modern examinations of ekphrastic theory, setting in motion discussions of media specificity that continue into the 21st century, even as the lines between the verbal and the visual continue to blur in the digital age. Lessing himself opens the door for his work to be read in these terms, as he claims that his ideas apply not only to words and images, but all things beautiful -- that is to say, any artistic aesthetic. His ultimate goal is not to rob the verbal (i.e. poetry) of its power to express, but rather to suggest that as an art, it has certain modes of expression that are exclusive to its medium, and that its power (like that of any art) lies not in its imitative ability, but in its unique formal constraints. In that sense, Lessing's theory looks ahead to everything from Oulipo to New Criticism to digital art. It's an essential text for understanding the written word in its relation to visual theory.
Lessing's book-length essay, which he rather humbly describes as a collection of "notes," is one of the first modern examinations of ekphrastic theory, setting in motion discussions of media specificity that continue into the 21st century, even as the lines between the verbal and the visual continue to blur in the digital age. Lessing himself opens the door for his work to be read in these terms, as he claims that his ideas apply not only to words and images, but all things beautiful -- that is to say, any artistic aesthetic. His ultimate goal is not to rob the verbal (i.e. poetry) of its power to express, but rather to suggest that as an art, it has certain modes of expression that are exclusive to its medium, and that its power (like that of any art) lies not in its imitative ability, but in its unique formal constraints. In that sense, Lessing's theory looks ahead to everything from Oulipo to New Criticism to digital art. It's an essential text for understanding the written word in its relation to visual theory.
More...