. Against Interpretation closes with the platitude: “In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art.” (Sontag, p.14) This is one of Sontag’s statements that promises more than it delivers. I have wanted to read a Sontag book for as long as I can remember and was supremely disappointed. Though she claims that interpretation can be “stifling”, making art comfortable and “manageable” and thus degrading the artist’s original intention, Sontag equally presents a solution to the dilemma she sees as an abundance of interpretation on content. As the name suggests, the essay is all about Susan’s idea of what interpretation is, and why she’s against it. There’s no way to know what you are going to get (angry emoji), Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2019, Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2018, Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2016. This most recent edition features a new afterword by Sontag. Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2018, The printing has been done by a third party. Her ideas at the time of a writer was someone interested in “everything.” She believes that interpretation of the modern style has a particular “taming” effect: reducing the freedom of a subjective response and placing limitations or certain rules upon a responder. In the latter, Sontag argues that the new approach to criticism and aesthetics neglects the sensuous impact of art, replacing it with tame intellectual interpretations and emphasis on the "content" or "meaning" of a work. Add a gift receipt for easy returns. Art has to be analysed through our senses, intuition and not with the intellect. To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, © 1996-2020, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. “Against Interpretation” and other essays, by Susan Sontag It’s a little intimidating to try to comment upon this essay collection. Susan Sontag (/ ˈ s ɒ n t æ ɡ /; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, filmmaker, philosopher, teacher, and political activist. Includes the essay "Notes on Camp," the inspiration for the 2019 exhibition Notes on Fashion: Camp at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Against Interpretation was Susan Sontag's first collection of essays and is a modern classic. It had the best food and wine; cuisine was after all a French word. In this way, Sontag asserts that inevitably, the modern style of interpretation separates form and content in a manner that damages an artwork and one's own sensorial appreciation of a piece. Looked at in retrospect, one of the surprising things about the late 1950s and early 1960s is just how superior we were given to believe French culture was. Against Interpretation Susan Sontag The earliest experience of art must have been that it was incantatory, magical; art was an instrument of ritual. . Sontag’s seminal essay ‘Against Interpretation’ is a vehement rejection of the approach adopted by New Critics. Her non-fiction works include A gainst Interpretation, On Photography, Illness as Metaphor, AIDS and its Metaphors and Regarding the Pain of Others. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less Includes the essay "Notes on Camp," the inspiration for the 2019 exhibition Notes on Fashion: Camp at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Against Interpretation was Susan Sontag's first collection of essays and is a modern classic. Sontag’s criticism was marked by a formalist aversion to content. And the artists and intellectuals she discusses – Nietzsche, Camus, Godard, Barthes etc – demonstrate that she knew which horses to back. As well as the title essay and the famous “Notes on Camp,” Against Interpretationincludes original and provocative discussions of Sartre, Simone Weil, Godard, Beckett, science-fiction movies, psychoanalysis, and contemporary religious thinking. He added, "...the essays are unfailingly stimulating. Unable to add item to List. Does she mean any and all interpretation, as my … Against Interpretation was Susan Sontag's first collection of essays and is a modern classic. I am old enough to remember the early 1960s. Against Interpretation, Susan Sontag’s 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 60’s, eager to become the writer she so longed to become. La compréhension est simple et vrai. There's a problem loading this menu right now. Recently finished this collection of essays by Susan Sontag published in 1966. Sontag also refers to the contemporary world as one of “overproduction... material plentitude”,[4] where one's physical senses have been dulled and annihilated by mass production and complex interpretation to the extent that appreciation of the form of art has been lost. He concluded, "Miss Sontag has written a ponderable, vivacious, beautifully living and quite astonishingly American book. I do not understand how to report this amazon prime scam. It includes some of Sontag's best-known works, including "On Style," and the eponymous essay "Against Interpretation." "[6] Brandon Robshaw of The Independent later observed, "This classic collection of essays and criticism from the 1960s flatters the reader's intelligence without being intimidating." There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. “The ideal or the dream would be to arrive at a language that heals as much as it separates.” ― Susan Sontag, Against Interpretation and Other Essays The language is dry and very technical, I read some of it, but, couldn't get engaged enough to finish this. The chief commodity of Susan Sontag's Against Interpretation, according to its author and her reviewers, is a modern sensibility.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. Susan Sontag in her essay “Against Interpretation” focuses on what an interpretation really is. New York: Picador, 2001. Originally published in 1966, it has never gone out of print and has influenced generations of readers all over the world. Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2014. Today, by contrast, I sense many of us no longer approach modern art and philosophy with any attempt at all to seriously engage with it. The French intellectual that leaves the largest trace on Against Interpretation is Roland Barthes. I will persevere but it is not a book for a good read. And Sontag is all about being serious in one’s approach to art, theater, cinema and literature. Susan Sontag. What is it to understand a work of art? Something went wrong. Prices are hidden. They knew more about sex than other nations and, moreover, knew how to enjoy it, lots of it allegedly. Similarly with avant-garde paintings, or experimental music, or theater of the absurd – we TRIED to understand them. I will persevere but it is not a book for a good read. Sontag, in New York, was at the center of a phenomenal cultural change in the arts. As a student of the 1960's, this essay collection is a really wonderful asset. The key French ideas are all here. Ms.Sontag is heavy going! “Susan Sontag's essays are great interpretations, and even fulfillments, of what is really going on.” ―Carlos Fuentes“A dazzling intellectual performance.” ―Vogue“Susan Sontag is a writer of rare energy and provocative newness.” ―The Nation“The theoretical portions of her book are delightful to read because she can argue so well. Originally published in 1966, it has never gone out of print and has influenced generations of readers all over the world. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. En anglais.. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. She is also the author of four novels, a collection of stories and several plays. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Against interpretation, and other essays by Sontag, Susan Former library book; Pages can have notes/highlighting. Then there was Jacques Brel and Edith Piaf. Please try your request again later. What, then, does Sontag mean by “interpretation”? She discusses and mixes the ideas of other writers and further differentiates two kinds of interpretation – form based interpretation and content based interpretation. Susan Sontag. Rather than even attempt to synthesize Sontag’s 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. Please try again. Susan Sontag addresses this in her essay Against Interpretation, which was published in 1966 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ... as long as I can remember and was supremely disappointed. Susan Sontag Susan Sontag Susan Sontag, in Against Interpretation, takes a very interesting critical standpoint on the idea of literary interpretation.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. Still updated!! Originally published in 1966, it has never gone out of print and has influenced generations of … It’s cheap and takes all the pleasure of holding a book away. Against Interpretation is a collection of essays by Susan Sontag published in 1966. Against Interpretation and Other Essays, Susan Sontag Against Interpretation is a collection of essays by Susan Sontag published in 1966. 6, 2014 on June 6, 2014 New York, was at the center of a phenomenal cultural in! 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