Abstract

ALAPE, Rossember. Fruitfulness and Transiency. A Reading of Lessing's Laocoon as Image Theory. Bol. estét. [online]. 2021, n.57, pp.11-20. ISSN 2408-4417.  http://dx.doi.org/10.36446/be.2021.57.265.

This paper examinates critically, the interpretation of the Laocoon as a work whose main contribution is to be found in a theory of signs. Two elements Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s text are highlighted: the specificity of the temporal dynamics that static images display and the defense of the iconic potential of language. Central to the argument is that Lessing's understanding of the concept of the fertile moment in the visual representation of the transitory includes an analysis of linguistic figuration. This way of proceeding would then allow to interpret his contribution as an implicit theory of the image, that is, as a study of the objective foundations of creating meaning in images based on their agreements and disagreements with verbal language.

Keywords : Mimesis; Logocentrism; Aesthetics of Reception; Figuration; Iconicity.