Originally published in 1966, it has never gone out of print and has influenced generations of readers all over the world. Complete summary of susan sontag s against interpretation and other essays. Against interpretation by susan sontag essay example for. When done indiscriminately the films in question begin to look alike, and the process reveals more about the critic than the film. Interpretation thus presupposes a discrepancy between the clear meaning of the text and the demands of later readers. The last essay on our list is called against interpretation and was written by the acclaimed author susan sontag, best known for her contribution to understanding photography. Aug 25, 2001 against interpretation was susan sontag s first collection of essays and is a modern classic. American writer noted for her essays on contemporary culture, especially those contained in against interpretation. If youre unfamiliar, susan sontag was a wellknown cultural critic and essayist among other things. Against interpretation and other essays, by susan sontag. Other readers will always be interested in your opinion of the books youve read. Against interpretation was susan sontag s first collection of essays and is a modern classic. I also sat down and properly read a couple of books by susan sontag against interpretation and where the stress falls and loved more or less every word of both, especially the stuff i vehemently disagreed with.
Susan sontag, american intellectual and writer best known for her essays on modern culture. Her ideas at the time of a writer was someone interested in everything. As sontag says, near the end of against interpretation. Its first two essays against interpretation and on styleare so fascinating and so lucid that i am afraid my commentary can only impose a gloss of halfunderstood meaning on top of sontag s clear structure. Sontag has seemingly read everything, from sophocles to sartre, but has. Her first work of nonfiction, against interpretation, published in 1966, was a sweeping assessment of art and contemporary culture as well as an instant classic. Against interpretation, by susan sontag the independent. It includes some of sontag s bestknown works, including on style, and the eponymous essay against interpretation. This most recent edition features a new afterword by sontag. Against interpretation and other essays by susan sontag. On sontags against interpretation a mind for madness. Susan sontags against interpretation a 1964 seminal essay is one of her most famous works. Susan sontag was born in manhattan in 1933 and studied at the universities of chicago, harvard and oxford.
Ours is a culture based on excess, on overproduction. Against interpretation, susan sontags second book, was published in 1966, but some of the essays date back to 1961, when she was still writing for the benefactor. Sontag had come to new york in the early 60s, eager to become the writer she so longed to become. To interpret art, sontag argues, is to first assume that all art is allegorical. It includes the groundbreaking essays notes on camp and against interpretation, as well as her impassioned discussions of. A series of provocative discussions on everything from individual authors to contemporary religious thinking, against interpretation and other essays is the definitive collection of susan sontags best known and important works published in penguin modern classics. Against interpretation and other essays by susan sontag 1966 old favourites. Sontag definition of sontag by the free dictionary.
Unlike most literary critics, sontag believes that literary criticism is growing increasingly destructive towards the very works of art that they, supposedly, so greatly appreciate and respect. The ideal or the dream would be to arrive at a language that heals as much as it separates. Susan sontag created a sensation in the mid1960s with her essay against interpretation. Pdf susan sontag against interpretation and other es.
In the latter, sontag argues that in the new approach to aesthetics the spiritual importance of art is being replaced by the emphasis on the. Sontag, a woman as erudite as anybody in the 20th century, is. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading against interpretation. Although she made it clear that she was not against all interpretation of works of art, her position quickly became associated with the idea of art for arts sakethat is, with a concern only with form and style, not with morality and content. Against interpretation was susan sontags first collection of essays and is a modern classic originally published in 1966, it has never gone out of print and has influenced generations of.
Like in place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art. Stress the modernity here, since she is distinguished less by a decided or passionate point of view compare her as a film critic, for example, with two such disparate personalities as james agee and kenneth tynan than by an eagerness to explore anything new. But sontags greatest admonition against interpretation has to do with. How susan sontag taught me to think the new york times. Against interpretation and other essays by susan sontag goodreads. Complete summary of susan sontags against interpretation and other essays. I also dipped in and out of the first volume of her journals. Feb 05, 2016 buy here you can find me here as well.
Sontag, in new york, was at the center of a phenomenal cultural change in the arts. All the conditions of modem lifeits material plenitude, its forms of narration. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. Susan sontag on the trouble with treating art and cultural material. It includes some of sontags bestknown works, including on style, and the. Share susan sontag quotations about art, photography and reality.
Rather than even attempt to synthesize sontags far ranging criticism, i have decided to concentrate on a single piece of criticism which has had a profound influence on the way many people analyze film, myself included. As well as the title essay and the famous notes on camp, against interpretation includes original and provocative discussions of sartre, simone weil, godard, beckett, sciencefiction movies, psychoanalysis, and contemporary religious thinking. For sontag, seriousness was an allencompassing, even physical way of being in the world. Her nonfiction works include against interpretation, on photography, illness as metaphor, aids and its metaphors and regarding the pain of others. And she warned against the mystifications of photographs and portraits. First published in 1966, this celebrated book sontags first collection of essays quickly became a modern classic, and has had an enormous influence in america and abroad on. Dec 30, 2015 susan sontags against interpretation a 1964 seminal essay is one of her most famous works. Susan sontag, savantidiot by joseph epstein, commentary. Against interpretation and other essays audiobook by.
Against interpretation, and other essays susan sontag from the publisher. Against interpretation and other essays by susan sontag 1966. This is the susan sontag who called white civilization the cancer of human history. May 20, 2019 the word serious and its variants seriousness, seriously appear 120 times in against interpretation, a text of 322 pages. Against interpretation was susan sontags first collection of essays and is a modern classic. Sontag synonyms, sontag pronunciation, sontag translation, english dictionary definition of sontag. No 16 against interpretation by susan sontag 1966 the novelists early essays provide the quintessential commentary on. Against interpretation and other essays audiobook by susan. It includes some of sontags bestknown works, including on style, and the eponymous essay against interpretation.
Against interpretation, and other essays by susan sontag. Against interpretation is a collection of essays by susan sontag published in 1966. Against interpretation, by susan sontag commentary. Susan sontag, in against interpretation, takes a very interesting critical standpoint on the idea of literary interpretation.
Camp at the costume institute of the metropolitan museum of art against interpretation was susan sontags first collection of essays and is a modern classic. Susan sontag, against interpretation and other essays interpretation first appears in the culture of late classical antiquity, when the power and credibility of myth had been broken by the realistic view of the world introduced by scientific enlightenment. Publication date 1969 topics literature, modern, criticism publisher new york. In the latter, sontag argues that in the new approach to aesthetics the spiritual importance. Originally published in 1966, it has never gone out of print and has. First published in 1966, this celebrated book sontag s first collection of essays quickly became a modern classic, and has had an enormous influence in america and abroad on. Against interpretation was susan sontag s first collection of essays and is a modern classic originally published in 1966, it has never gone out of print and has influenced generations of readers all over the world. Against interpretation and other essays quotes by susan sontag. Written in 1966, it is part of a collection of essays which also includes on style. Against interpretation was susan sontags first collection of essays and made her name as one of the most incisive thinkers of. Against interpretation susan sontag the earliest experience of art must have been that it was incantatory, magical. Nearly a century later, susan sontag january 16, 1933december 28, 2004, perhaps his only true intellectual peer in the history of human thought, used nietzsches assertion as the springboard for one of the greatest essays ever written her 1964 masterwork against interpretation, found in against interpretation and other essays public library. Sontag was among the first critics to write about the intersection between high and low art forms, and to give them equal value as valid topics, shown here in her epochmaking pieces notes on camp and.
Nearly a century later, susan sontag january 16, 1933december 28. Susan sontag, against interpretation and other essays. A 95cent dell paperback with a frontcover photograph of the author, susan sontag. The word serious and its variants seriousness, seriously appear 120 times in against interpretation, a text of 322 pages. She attended the university of california at berkeley for one year and then transferred to the university of. Reevaluation of sontags seminal essay against interpretation. Most people have forgotten about or never learned about seminal figures such as jack smith, but sontag deals with him, as well as happenings, surrealism, and john cage, from a decidedly francophile perspective.
Do not sell my personal information the new yorker may earn a portion of sales from. Against interpretation is an essay written by american critic susan sontag. Susan sontag on the trouble with treating art and cultural. Unlike most literary critics, sontag believes that literary criticism is growing increasingly destructive towards the very works of art that they, supposedly, so. Its a little intimidating to try to comment upon this essay collection. With her insatiable appetite for creativity in all its forms, sontag produces a collection of essays that is an ambitious work. It is included in her 1966 collection against interpretation and other essays. In his biography, moser, i believe, came to praise susan sontag. This classic collection of essays and criticism from the 1960s flatters the readers intelligence without being intimidating. Against interpretation ebook by susan sontag rakuten kobo. She it was who, after a trip to hanoi during the vietnam war, idealized the north vietnamese and said, they genuinely believe life is simple.
January 16, 1933 december 28, 2004 was an american writer, filmmaker, philosopher, teacher, and political activist. Against interpretation and other essays penguin modern. Jul 02, 2009 against interpretation was susan sontag s first collection of essays and made her name as one of the most incisive thinkers of our time. Biographer and subject, after all, seem to share the same politics, that of conventional american leftism.
She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels. Against interpretation, susan sontags second book, was published in 1966, but some of the essays date back to 1961, when she was still writing for the benefactor sontag had come to new york in the early 60s, eager to become the writer she so longed to. Nearly a century later, susan sontag january 16, 1933december 28, 2004, perhaps his only true intellectual peer in the history of human thought, used nietzsches assertion as the springboard for one of the greatest essays ever written her 1964 masterwork against interpretation, found in against interpretation and other essays. The earliest theory of art, that of the greek philosophers, proposed that art was mimesis, imitation of reality.
1350 221 1015 190 634 507 1698 381 1519 191 1522 1068 302 1460 1393 753 227 48 655 1179 758 1636 7 403 913 384 1536 31 1436 233 639 1481 1039 63 277 373 115 480 348 879 1467 1069 714 1379 1278 862 373 513 1378