Intertextuality and Dialogue: On the Pillow of Grass’s Aesthetic Response to Laocoön

Abstract

The aesthetic view of “the unity of poetry and painting” presented in The Pillow of Grass by Natsume Sōseki, a giant of modern Japanese literature, constitutes a creative response to the theoretical system of “the distinction between poetry and painting” constructed in Laocoön, a classic aesthetic work by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, the German Enlightenment thinker. This response forms a trans-temporal and trans-spatial intertextual dialogue between the two texts. Specifically, the dialogue is embodied in three aspects: first, at the core proposition level, the Eastern aesthetic view of “the unity of poetry and painting” advocated by Natsume Sōseki stands in opposition to the Western aesthetic framework of “the distinction between poetry and painting” by Lessing; second, in specific aesthetic practice, The Pillow of Grass directly refutes the normative boundary set by Lessing for painting, which takes visual pleasure as the criterion, through the aesthetic transformation of “the ugly”, thus opening up a new path for the possibility of artistic expression; third, in terms of ideological origin, the Eastern philosophy of “contemplation” advocated by Natsume Sōseki forms a fundamental cultural contrast with the Western spirit of “action” advocated by Lessing. Such cross-cultural aesthetic practice of Natsume Sōseki not only demonstrates the ideological consciousness of East Asian intellectuals in the face of the impact of modern culture, but also provides a valuable example for understanding the profound differences and dialogue possibilities between Eastern and Western aesthetics.