La cultura americana e il Laokoon di G.E. Lessing: premesse di una fortunata ricezione critica (1840-1874)

An emerging interest in German culture took form in North America, especially in New England, during the XIXth century: it represented a significant cultural phenomenon that led to a new and collective demand for English translations and reviews of the most popular works of German authors. Over the years, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s Laocoon: An Essay Upon the Limits of Painting and Poetry attracted the critics’ attention becoming one of the most requested texts by the American audience: its translations enriched the American debate about the relationship between visual and verbal arts, turning the treatise into a vehicle for the increase of aesthetic knowledge. As the research points out, the different interpretations of the Laocoon’s statements were radically conditioned by a complex net of pre-existing values and utilities. Through the analysis of selected documents, dated between 1840 and 1874, the present article aims at a better comprehension of the critical reception of Lessing’s work in North America over the century.