Susan Sontag

Sontag wrote Illness as Metaphor in 1978, while suffering from breast cancer herself. In her study she reveals that the metaphors and myths surrounding certain illnesses, especially cancer, add greatly to the suffering of the patients and often inhibit them from seeking proper treatment. By demystifying the fantasies surrounding cancer, Sontag shows cancer for what it is - a disease; not a curse, not a punishment, certainly not an embarrassment, and highly curable, if good treatment is found early enough. Almost a decade later, with the outbreak of a new, stigmatized disease replete with mystifications and punitive metaphors, Sontag wrote Aids and Its Metaphors, extending the argument of the earlier book to the AIDS pandemic.

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 Sontag's best known and important works published in Penguin Modern Classics. Against Interpretation was Susan Sontag's first collection of essays and made her name as one of the most incisive thinkers of our time. 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 epoch-making pieces 'Notes on Camp' and 'Against Interpretation'. Here too are impassioned discussions of Sartre, Camus, Simone Weil, Godard, Beckett, Lévi-Strauss, science-fiction movies, psychoanalysis and contemporary religious thought. Originally published in 1966, this collection has never gone out of print and has been a major influence on generations of readers, and the field of cultural criticism, ever since. Susan Sontag (1933-2004) was born in Manhattan and studied at the universities of Chicago, Harvard and Oxford. She is the author of four novels - The Benefactor, Death Kit, The Volcano Lover and In America, which won the 2000 US National Book Award for fiction - a collection of stories, several plays, and six books of essays, among them Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors. Her books are translated into thirty-two languages. In 2001 she was awarded the Jerusalem Prize for the body of her work, and in 2003 she received the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature and the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. If you enjoyed Against Interpretation and Other Essays, you might like Sontag's On Photography, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.'A dazzling intellectual performance' Vogue'Sontag offers enough food for thought to satisfy the most intellectual of appetites' The Times

Susan Sontag's third essay collection brings together her most important critical writing from 1972 to 1980. In these provocative and hugely influential works she explores some of the most controversial artists and thinkers of our time, including her now-famous polemic against Hitler's favourite film-maker, Leni Riefenstahl, and the cult of fascist art, as well as a dazzling analysis of Hans-Jürgen Syberberg's Hitler, a Film from Germany. There are also highly personal and powerful explorations of death, art, language, history, the imagination and writing itself.

Where the Stress Falls is divided into three sections: the first, 'Reading', includes ardent pieces on writers from Sontag's own private canon - Machado de Assis, Barthes, W. G. Sebald, Borges, Tsvetaeva and Elizabeth Hardwick. In the second, 'Seeing', she shares her passions for film, dance, photography, painting, opera and theatre. And in the final section, 'There and Here', Sontag explores her own commitments to the work (and activism) of conscience and to the vocation of the writer.

This collection of essays contains some of the most important pieces of criticism of the twentieth century, including the classics 'The Aesthetics of Silence', a brilliant account of language, thought and consciousness, and 'Trip to Hanoi', written during the Vietnam War. Here too is an excoriating account of America's identity and future, a robust and surprising discussion of pornography and other richly rewarding writings on art, film, literature and politics.

The Benefactor is Susan Sontag's first book and first novel. It was originally published in 1963, and introduced a unique writer to the world. In the form of a memoir by a latter-day Candide named Hippolyte, The Benefactor leads us on a kind of psychic Grand Tour, in which Hippolyte's violently imaginative dream life becomes indistinguishable from his surprising experiences in the 'real world'.

The story of In America is inspired by the emigration to America in 1876 of Helena Modrzejewska, Poland's most celebrated actress, accompanied by her husband, Count Karol Chlapowski, her fifteen-year-old son, Rudolf, the young journalist and future author of Quo Vadis, Henryk Sienkiewicz, and a few friends; their brief sojourn in Anaheim, California; and Modrzejewska's subsequent triumphant career on the American stage under the name Helena Modjeska.

Features a critique of photography that asks forceful questions about the moral and aesthetic issues surrounding this art form. This title examines the ways in which we use these omnipresent images to manufacture a sense of reality and authority in our lives.

'These sixteen pieces brim over with vitality . . . every one of them opening up fresh lines of thought' John Gray, New StatesmanAt the Same Time contains sixteen illuminating essays by Susan Sontag with a preface by David Rieff. The sixteen essays represent the last pieces written by Susan Sontag in the years before her death in 2004. Reflecting on literature, photography and art, post 9/11 America and political activism, these essays encompass the themes that dominated Sontag's life and work, revealing why she remains one of the twentieth century's preeminent writers and thinkers.'One of America's greatest public intellectuals' Observer'Excellent and essential' Financial Times'Reads like a greatest-hits album - a little politics, something on photography, some lit. crit. - of Sontag's passions' Daily Telegraph'Sontag's clear thinking . . . shines like a spotlight in dark places' The Times

A powerful compilation of sixteen essays, written in the last years of the author's life, offers a series of reflections on her commitment to the power of literature, political activism, the resistance to injustice as an ethical duty, the problems of post-9/11 America, and the work of such diverse writers as Soviet novelist Leonid Tsypkin and Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer. Reprint. 25,000 first printing.

Lesen und Sehen: ob Fotografie oder Literatur, Kino oder Malerei, Susan Sontags rastlose Neugier und wacher Blick waren überall zu Hause. Sie maß die Moral der Welt an der Kunst und die Kunst an der Welt: entdeckte Autoren wie W. G. Sebald, führte im besetzten Sarajewo :Warten auf Godot9 auf und lehrte uns, den Fotos der Presse zu misstrauen. "Worauf es ankommt" war ihre letzte Essaysammlung, Testament einer Kosmopolitin des Lebens und der Kunst: "ein Kaleidoskop, funkelnd wie die Welt". Süddeutsche Zeitung

Den amerikanske kulturkritikeren Susan Sontag (f. 1933) er kjent for sine romaner, et brennende engasjement og for sine kulturteoretiske essayer, hvorav flere om kunst, film og litteratur. Som essayist, teoretiker og engasjert intellektuell er hun en verdensstjerne, og sist fikk hun en prestisjefylt internasjonal pris for sitt virke for ytringsfrihet. Ingen av Sontags bøker om kunst er blitt utgitt på norsk, men endelig oversettes hennes mest berømte . og mest leste . bok Om fotografi (On Photography, 1976). Her drøftes forholdet mellom kunst og virkelighet, og fotografiets og fotograferingens funksjon. For hvordan .lese. fotografi? Som kommentar til en virkelig hendelse, eller som en egen form for virkelighet? I essayet . Against Interpretation. hadde Susan Sontag argumentert mot tolkning og for .en kunstens erotikk.. Heller ikke fotografiet skal ihjeltolkes eller .forstås., skriver hun i Om fotografi. Fotografier verken representerer eller fortolker verden, men er selv .biter av verden.. Som kunstverker må de erfares, dvs. sanses og oppleves. Det alminnelige behovet for å fotografere, for stadig flere bilder, er imidlertid knyttet til behovet for å konsumere. Sontag kan videre fastslå at fotografiets utbredelse i sin tur får oss til å se på verden fotografisk . som et bilde! Utgis med et etterord av kunsthistoriker Ina Blom.

It was a movement so artfully anarchic, and so quickly suppressed, that readers only began to discover its strange and singular brilliance three decades after it was extinguished-and then only in somizdat and emigre publications. Some called it the last of the Russian avant-garde, and others called it the first (and last) instance of Absurdism in Russia: however difficult to classify, it was OBERIU (from an acronym standing for The Union of Real Art), and the pleasures of its poetry and prose are, with this volume, at long last fully open to English-speaking readers. This anthology includes the work of three writers, Alexander Vvedensky, Daniil Kharms, and Nikolai Zabolotsky, who, between 1927 and 1930, made up the core of OBERIU, and of three others, Nikolai Oleinikov, Leonid Lipavsky, and Yakov Druskin, who, although not members of OBERIU, worked in the same vein. Skillfully translated to preserve the weird charm of the originals, these poems and prose pieces display all the hilarity and tragedy, the illogical action and puppetlike violence and eroticism, and the hallucinatory intensity that brought down the wrath of the Soviet censors. Today they offer an uncanny reflection of the distorted reality they reject.

25 Jahre nach ihrem berühmten Essay "Über Fotografie" beschäftigt sich die Trägerin des Friedenspreises des Deutschen Buchhandels mit dem entsetzlich aktuellen Thema der Kriegsfotografie. Sie rekapituliert deren historische Entwicklung vom Spanischen Bürgerkrieg bis Afghanistan, beschreibt die unvergesslichen Bilder bedeutender Fotografen und stellt die zentrale Frage: Was löst der Anblick eines leidenden Menschen im Betrachter aus?

Die berühmte polnische Schauspielerin Maryna Zalezowska sucht im Jahr 1876 mit einer Gruppe europamüder Polen einen Neuanfang im gelobten Land Amerika. Das Unternehmen scheitert, die Freunde zerstreuen sich in alle Winde und für Maryna beginnt ein neues Leben: Sie wird zur gefeierten, nun amerikanischen Diva.

Regarding the Pain of Others is Susan Sontag's searing analysis of our numbed response to images of horror.'A coruscating sermon on how we picture suffering' The New York TimesWhat is the purpose of images of pain and suffering? Can there be any real justification for the creation, and consumption, of such images? In this seminal volume, Susan Sontag examines the uses and meanings of images, from inspiring dissent to fostering violence to creating apathy. And through this lens she considers the nature of war, the limits of sympathy, and the obligations of conscience.'A far-reaching set of ruminations [...] on what it means to be alive and alert in the twenty-first century' Independent'Sontag is on top form: devastating' Los Angeles Times'Simple, elegant, fiercely persuasive' Metro

Set in 18th century Naples, based on the lives of Sir William Hamilton, his celebrated wife Emma, and Lord Nelson, and peopled with many of the great figures of the day, this unconventional, bestselling historical romance from the National Book Award-winning author of In America touches on themes of sex and revolution, the fate of nature, art and the collector's obsessions, and, above all, love.

A brilliant, clear-eyed consideration of the visual representation of violence in our culture--its ubiquity, meanings, and effects. Considered one of the greatest critics of her generation, Susan Sontag followed up her monumental On Photography with an extended study of human violence, reflecting on a question first posed by Virginia Woolf in Three Guineas: How in your opinion are we to prevent war? "For a long time some people believed that if the horror could be made vivid enough, most people would finally take in the outrageousness, the insanity of war." One of the distinguishing features of modern life is that it supplies countless opportunities for regarding (at a distance, through the medium of photography) horrors taking place throughout the world. But are viewers inured--or incited--to violence by the depiction of cruelty? Is the viewer's perception of reality eroded by the daily barrage of such images? What does it mean to care about the suffering of others far away? First published more than twenty years after her now-classic book On Photography, which changed how we understand the very condition of being modern, Regarding the Pain of Others challenges our thinking not only about the uses and means of images, but about how war itself is waged (and understood) in our time, the limits of sympathy, and the obligations of conscience.

Welche Rolle spielen Krankheiten, die, wie Krebs, Tuberkulose oder Aids, oft einen tödlichen Ausgang haben, in unserer Phantasie? Entscheidend ist der sprachliche Umgang mit Krankheit, die oft feindselige und unangemessene Art, in Metaphern zu denken und zu urteilen. Susan Sontag plädiert für die Entdämonisierung schreckensvoller Krankheiten. Erstmals werden im vorliegenden Band die inhaltlich eng aufeinander bezogenen Essays :Krankheit als Metapher9 und :Aids und seine Metaphern9 gemeinsam publiziert. Sie sind, ein jeder für sich und in ihrer Gesamtheit, ein überzeugendes Plädoyer für den Versuch, sich vom Schrecken tödlicher Krankheit zu befreien - durch Demaskierung bei der Wortwahl. Susan Son-tag hat Metaphern und Bilder von Krankheit aufgespürt, die zeigen, daß Krebs - und in früheren Zeiten die Tuberkulose - nicht nur als tödlich betrachtet, sondern mit dem Tod selbst identifiziert wurden. Die Dämonisierung von Krankheit steht in einer langen Tradition, die von der Antike über das Mittelalter bis in die Neuzeit reicht. Susan Sontag kritisiert ebenso die zeitgenössische Neigung einer vorwiegend psychologischen Erklärung von Krankheit. Auch Aids soll weder Gottesurteil noch Sünde, sondern schlicht eine in ihrer Endphase schmerzvolle und tödliche Krankheit sein. In ihren berühmten Essays gelingt es der nüchternen, durch Kritik und Analyse bestimmten Betrachtung, schwerste Krankheiten nicht länger als etwas :Fremdes9 aus unserem Leben auszugrenzen, sondern diese zu integrieren.

Forty perceptive essays selected from the past two decades of the author's work explore a variety of topics, including art, photography, film, dance, opera, and theater. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.