Johann Christoph Gottsched

Johann Christoph Gottsched , 1700-1766, German literary critic, disciple of the Enlightenment. As professor of poetry and philosophy at the Univ. of Leipzig, he virtually dictated intellectual life in that city, and he exerted great influence upon 18th-century German letters, largely through the controversies he aroused. His rationalistic Versuch einer critischen Dichtkunst [a critical approach to poetry] (1730) rejects poetic fancy and conceits, stressing purity of language and classic construction. Gottsched's theories were convincingly refuted by Bodmer and Breitinger. He wrote much on dramatic theory and also engaged the troupe of Karoline Neuber to perform plays that he and his wife, Luise Adelgunde, wrote or adapted, notably The Dying Cato (1732).

Gottsched, Johann Christoph (1700–66), German literary critic who tried to reform the German stage on the lines of the French classical theatre. He was helped by the actress Carolina Neuber, for whom he drew up a model repertory, later published in 1740–5, of adaptations of French plays, with a few German works of which the best were those of J. E. Schlegel. Some of them were acted by Carolina Neuber's company in place of the traditional farces featuring Hanswurst, whom she banished from the stage. She also produced Gottsched's own plays, of which Der sterbende Cato (1732), based on Addison's Cato (1713), was the most successful.