‘What do I See?’ The Order of Looking in Lessing's Emilia Galotti

Abstract

Lessing’s Emilia Galotti (1768–72) is considered a model for the German dramaturgy of the late eighteenth century. But the play has to be seen as a performative answer to Lessing’s treatise on the aesthetic differences between painting and poetics Laocoon (1766). The article examines how far the borders between picture (painting) and word (poetry) that Lessing discusses in Laocoon are questioned by the aesthetic effects of the acting body in Emilia Galotti. The discussion considers how far the play can be seen as a late statement by Lessing on the question of the differences between the arts he raised in Laocoon.