Lebhafte Kürze. Zum Funktionswandel des Stils zwischen Brockes und Klopstock

Research for this article was supported by a RDC small grant, and a RDC major grant. The article is based on a presentation that I gave a a conference at the Zentrum für Literaturforschung, Berlin, in October 2021. The editors of "Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie" (a prestigious, peer-reviewed journal in the field of German studies, established in 1868) invited me to submit my contribution for peer-review.<br><br>The article contributes to a better understanding of the function if style, or rather developments of style during the 18th century, for descriptive poetry. I survey German (Gottsched, Herder, Klopstock), and English (Harris, Blair) writing on stylistic devices such as "brevity," "energy," or "perspicuity" to explain the shift from ekphrastic description in poetry, to forms of description that rather focus on the subjective experience of visually perceived phenomena.