E491: History of Literary Criticism

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Study Questions

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from Laocoon (1766)

1. What, according to Lessing, is the difference between the amateur, the philosopher, and the critic? (554-55)

2. To what extent does Lessing disagree with Winckelmann's view of Greek art as consisting in "noble simplicity and quiet grandeur"? Why does he disagree? (554-55ff)

3. To what extent does Lessing argue that the Greek painters were "wiser" than modern painters? What criticism of eighteenth-century art is Lessing offering here? (554-55ff)

4. Compare Lessing's comments on "expression" and, more particularly on "passion," with Aristotle's remarks in Poetics (93) about our capacity to take pleasure in representations of events that would be painful to witness in real life. (557-58)

5. Why, according to Lessing, must a painter be as careful as possible in choosing the "single moment" and perspective for a representation? What will be lost is the painter fails to be as careful as Lessing requires? (558)

6. Lessing writes of the need to "create for art's sake," and he mentions Classical religion as one of the "external constraints" that can interfere with the production of excellent art. Does he hold that such external factors always obstruct artistic endeavor? What modern constraints can you think of? (560)

7. What does Lessing identify as the "true subjects of poetry and painting," respectively? How is the one primarily spatial, and the primarily temporal? To what extent can the poet or painter appropriately move beyond these limits? (565-67)

8. Regarding question 7, do you find Lessing's claim that painting is mostly spatial and poetry mostly temporal a plausible one? Why or why not? (general question)

9. How does Lessing use Homer's description in the Iliad of Achilles' shield as an example of how a great poet deals with potentially static images? How does Homer go beyond mere "word-painting"? (569-70)

Edition: The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York: Norton, 2001. ISBN: 0393974294.