A note on Gesamtkunstwerk: the genealogy of an aesthetic concept

Abstract

This is a bibliographical review that analyses the contributions of Brown (2016), Bolpagni (2011), Mirisola (2020), Balzola (2017) and Ceraolo (2013), in order to rethink the genealogy of the well-established aesthetic concept of Gesamtkunstwerk. In fact, it is started from an attested question in the aesthetic field, that is from the relevance that the elaboration of the Gesamtkunstwerk has with the romantic-idealistic philosophical background, to arrive, especially owing to Brown, at designating the enlightenment philosopher Lessing as the forerunner of the romantic elaborations on the fusion of the arts, specifically of the most accomplished Wagnerian one. Hence the need to also rethink the temporal collocation of the classical and too crystallised aesthetic categories, now more than ever is on the line.