Publisher Description

This study analyses the emergence of aesthetic theory in eighteenth-century Germany in relation to contemporary theories of the nature of language and signs. As well as being extremely relevant to the discussion of literary theory, this perspective casts much light on Enlightenment aesthetics. The central text under consideration shows that the extended comparison of poetry and the plastic arts contained in that major work of aesthetic criticism rests upon a theory of signs and constitutes a complex and global theory of aesthetic signification. His analysis of Laocoon is preceded by chapters which establish the underlying structure and influence of the Enlightenment metasemiotic - that is, the place and function of the sign concept in the culture of the early eighteenth century. As an important reinterpretation of Lessing's Laocoon and of the development of German aesthetic theory, this book will be of special interest to students and scholars of German literature. Moreover, as a significant chapter in the history of semiotics, it will be read with profit by all those concerned with the history of literary criticism and aesthetic theory.

Author Biography

David E. Wellbery is the Kurrelmeyer Professor of German at the Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of Lessing's Laocoon: Semiotics and Aesthetics in the Age of Reason (Cambridge, l984), and the co-editor of several collections of essays.

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. The Framework of Enlightenment semiotics: Christian Wolff; 2. Semiotics and aesthetics in the work of Baumgarten, Meier and Mendelssohn; 3. Lessing's Laocoon; Concluding Remarks: Enlightenment aesthetics from the standpoint of today; Notes; Index.

Promotional "Headline"

This study analyses the emergence of aesthetic theory in eighteenth-century Germany in relation to contemporary theories of the nature of language and signs.

Description for Bookstore

This study analyses the emergence of aesthetic theory in eighteenth-century Germany in relation to contemporary theories of the nature of language and signs. As well as being extremely relevant to the discussion of literary theory, this perspective casts much light on Enlightenment aesthetics.

Description for Library

This study analyses the emergence of aesthetic theory in eighteenth-century Germany in relation to contemporary theories of the nature of language and signs. As well as being extremely relevant to the discussion of literary theory, this perspective casts much light on Enlightenment aesthetics.

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