On Lessing Drama Criticism

Lessing was a German famous drama critic in the eighteenth Century, Hamburgische Dramaturgie is his important works of criticism. Based on the Hamburgische Dramaturgie as a case, the paper is trying to fully reflect the value essence of Lessing dramatic theory and criticism method, in the three aspects:the concept, the method, the evaluation of Lessing’s drama criticism.In a special period of German Enlightenment in the eighteenth Century, Lessing was aware of the road of German literature, should not be a French neoclassical Road, and should be the national drama with the independent consciousness, so he launched a series of drama criticism. In the Hamburgische Dramaturgie, he put forward his criticism idea, including the conception of citizen drama, the conception of character, the conception of moral education, with a complete exposition about them. At the same time, in the methodology, he made unique comments on Hamburg National Theatre staged works, with the method of combining destruction, comparative analysis and typical discourse. It is in the push of the Hamburgische Dramaturgie, Germany’s National Theatre was able to develop and grow, and establish its own status. Although there are limitations of the times and personal, but Lessing and his Hamburgische Dramaturgie would not be ignored in human history.