On One Issue of Drama Theory in the Aesthetics of Lessing and Diderot

Abstract

The purpose of the present paper is to discuss the problem of democratization in the 18^th century Western European Enlightenment drama theory focusing on the theoretical works of Denis Diderot and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. The comparative analysis of their works demonstrates their common struggle against the aesthetics of classicism as well as differences in their drama theory. In literary scholarship there are diverse views on Lessing’s polemics with Diderot. Both theorists are equally demanding in their appeal for the democratization of literature and, in particular, drama, but Lessing finds it unacceptable to emphasize the social “condition” in the dramatic work, giving it priority over the individuality of the character. In fact, Lessing discovered a contradiction in Diderot's drama theory: it was a split between the ideal and the real, the general and the particular. Lessing managed to gain deep insight into the dialectical nature of the problem, seeking to find a balance between the ideal and the real, generalization and empirical diversity, the typical and the individual.