Something went wrong. For one thing, it reminded me of my college years, when so many of us earnestly went to see French New Wave films or other “art films” by Ingmar Bergman or the Italian directors, and then we would discuss them in dorm rooms or the student union later on, and pretend that we knew what we were talking about. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less Spine may show signs of wear. With her insatiable appetite for creativity in all its forms, Sontag produces a collection of essays that is an ambitious work. Sontag is strongly averse to what she considers to be contemporary interpretation, that is, an overabundance of importance placed upon the content or meaning of an artwork rather than being keenly alert to the sensuous aspects of a given work and developing a descriptive vocabulary for how it appears and how it does whatever it does. 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. Susan Sontag addresses this in her essay Against Interpretation, which was published in by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Susan Sontag addresses this in her essay Against Interpretation, which was published in 1966 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Well worth the time spent. 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. Originally published in 1966, it has never gone out of print and has influenced generations of readers all over the world. It’s cheap and takes all the pleasure of holding a book away. This most recent edition features a new afterword by Sontag. “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 Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2018. We work hard to protect your security and privacy. (Cf. Re-evaluation of Sontag’s seminal essay “Against Interpretation”. Sontag’s criticism was marked by a formalist aversion to content. What, then, does Sontag mean by “interpretation”? 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. The key French ideas are all here. Sontag spelled out this critical program in her 1964 essay, “Against Interpretation,” which now appears in the Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism in its most recent third edition—the sure sign of her domestication by American humanities. She discusses and mixes the ideas of other writers and further differentiates two kinds of interpretation – form based interpretation and content based interpretation. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, © 1996-2020, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Please try your request again later. Against Interpretation is a collection of essays by Susan Sontag published in 1966. They were left-wing; they smoked and hung around in bars and cafes on the Left Bank, discussing the meaning of meaning; they listened to cool jazz; and they had theories that were so complicated that they burst through the boundaries of everyday language into the most abstruse abstractions. I am old enough to remember the early 1960s. New York: Picador, 2001. On Sontag's essays “Against Interpretation” (1964), “On Style” (1965), and "The Death of Tragedy” (1963). Complicated language which just goes on and on. 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. Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2018, The printing has been done by a third party. Magnifique, ce livre est plein de sens. Though they bear the stamp of their time, Sontag was remarkably prescient; her project of analysing popular culture as well as high culture, the Doors as well as Dostoevsky, is now common practice throughout the educated world. The French intellectual that leaves the largest trace on Against Interpretation is Roland Barthes. Reverting to a more primitive and sensual, almost magical experience of art is what Sontag desires; even though that is quite impossible due to the thickened layers of hermeneutics that surround interpretation of art and that have grown to be recognised and respected. I do not understand how to report this amazon prime scam. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. . You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition. That is, to approach art works with a strong emphasis on form, to “reveal the sensuous surface of art without mucking about in it.”[5]. 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. And perhaps, above all, their intellectuals had a sophistication and popularity the intellectuals of other nations could not match. Please try again. 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. 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. Against interpretation and other essays by susan sontag for sample questionnaire for thesis Posted by profession of arms essay on 5 August 2020, 6:24 pm S. Melendez, the office manager orders basic office supplies, such as choco our names appeared on diversityin s list of … “Against Interpretation” and other essays, by Susan Sontag It’s a little intimidating to try to comment upon this essay collection. Art has to be analysed through our senses, intuition and not with the intellect. As the name suggests, the essay is all about Susan’s idea of what interpretation is, and why she’s against it. Against Interpretation is a collection of essays by Susan Sontag published in 1966. Susan argues that in New Criticism the sensory enjoyment of art is replaced by the intellect. the paintings in the caves at Lascaux, Altamira, Niaux, La Pasiega, etc.) Does she mean any and all interpretation, as my … 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. He added, "...the essays are unfailingly stimulating. Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays (FSG Classics). Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2014. And the artists and intellectuals she discusses – Nietzsche, Camus, Godard, Barthes etc – demonstrate that she knew which horses to back. Please try again. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. The language is dry and very technical, Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2015. Where this type of interpretation was seen to resolve conflict between past and present by revamping an art work and maintaining a certain level of respect and honour, Sontag believes that the modern style of interpretation has lost sensitivity and rather strives to “excavate...destroy”[2] a piece of art. I will persevere but it is not a book for a good read. Maybe its me. . 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 intellect.… Good reference book. To Sontag, modernity means a loss of sensory experience and she believes (in corroboration with her theory of the damaging nature of criticism) that the pleasure of art is diminished by such overload of the senses. 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. Against Interpretation and Other Essays, Susan Sontag Against Interpretation is a collection of essays by Susan Sontag published in 1966. 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. Against Interpretation, and Other Essays is a collection of twenty-seven essays and reviews which Susan Sontag, once the darling of the New … Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. La compréhension est simple et vrai. The essay was first published in Volume 8, number 34 of Evergreen Review in December 1964. They knew more about sex than other nations and, moreover, knew how to enjoy it, lots of it allegedly. Her standpoint could not be more accurate. In fact, so well did Sontag learn at the foot of the master that Notes on “Camp”, the stand-out essay in this book, could almost be a chapter from his own classic collection of essays Mythologies. Please try again. It includes some of Sontag's best-known works, including "On Style," and the eponymous essay "Against Interpretation." Against Interpretation was Susan Sontag's first collection of essays and is a modern classic. They have taken a print of the original copy. It includes some of Sontag's best-known works, including 'On Style,' and the eponymous essay 'Against Interpretation.' 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. It had the best food and wine; cuisine was after all a French word. One of the most fascinating reflection on the art critic!! Originally published in 1966, it has never gone out of print and has influenced generations of readers all over the world. The nouvelle vague was then at its height and consequently their film industry was the last word in cool. It includes some of Sontag's best-known works, including "On Style," and the eponymous essay "Against Interpretation." Susan Sontag. 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. Susan Sontag in her essay “Against Interpretation” focuses on what an interpretation really is. The modern style of interpretation is particularly despised by Sontag in relation to the previous classical style of interpretation that sought to “bring artworks up to date”, to meet modern interests and apply allegorical readings. Susan Sontag addresses this in her essay Against Interpretation, which was published in 1966 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 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. Although I can’t really say that I learned anything new from reading them, or that they transformed my viewpoint on anything, or that I gained any new insights, I don’t regret the experience. "[7], In their introduction to Critique and Postcritique (2017), Rita Felski and Elizabeth S. Anker argue that the title essay from Sontag's collection has played an important role in the field of postcritique, a movement within literary criticism and cultural studies that attempts to find new forms of reading and interpretation that go beyond the methods of critique, critical theory, and ideological criticism. 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. In fact, so well did Sontag learn at the foot of the master that Notes on “Camp”, the stand-out essay in this book, could almost be a chapter from his own classic collection of essays Mythologies. En anglais.. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Originally published in 1966, it has never gone out of print and has influenced generations of readers all over the world. He concluded, "Miss Sontag has written a ponderable, vivacious, beautifully living and quite astonishingly American book. 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. It includes the groundbreaking essays "Notes on Camp" and "Against Interpretation," as well as her impassioned discussions of Sartre, Camus, Simone Weil, Godard, Beckett, Levi-Strauss, science-fiction movies, psychoanalysis, and contemporary religious thought.This edition has a new afterword, "Thirty Years Later," in which Sontag restates the terms of her battle against philistinism and against ethical shallowness and indifference. Sontag’s seminal essay ‘Against Interpretation’ is a vehement rejection of the approach adopted by New Critics. 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. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 3, 2018. Sontag asserts that the modern style is quite harmful; to art and to audiences alike, enforcing hermeneutics -- fallacious, complicated “readings” that seem to engulf an artwork, to the extent that analysis of content begins to degrade, to destroy. She is also the author of four novels, a collection of stories and several plays. The book was a finalist for the Arts and Letters category of the National Book Award "Against Interpretation is a collection of essays by Susan Sontag published in 1966. Ms.Sontag is heavy going! Against interpretation, and other essays by Sontag, Susan Former library book; Pages can have notes/highlighting. Prices are hidden. 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. Against Interpretation was Susan Sontag's first collection of essays and is a modern classic. Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free. The book was a finalist for the Arts and Letters category of the National Book Award [1]. Similarly with avant-garde paintings, or experimental music, or theater of the absurd – we TRIED to understand them. There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness. Sontag looks to differentiate the content from the art, judging the value of the art by Patriotism Argumentative Essay art itself rather than what it represents. Susan Sontag. [8], "Against Interpretation, By Susan Sontag", Page for Against Interpretation on official Sontag site, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Against_Interpretation&oldid=999249026, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 9 January 2021, at 06:16. Unable to add item to List. As the name suggests, the essay is all about Susan’s idea of what interpretation is, and why she’s against it. “Against Interpretation” in Against Interpretation and other Essays. Prime members enjoy FREE Delivery and exclusive access to music, movies, TV shows, original audio series, and Kindle books. J'aime cette auteur. "Against Interpretation" is Sontag's influential essay within Against Interpretation and Other Essays that discusses the divisions between two different kinds of art criticism and theory: that of formalist interpretation, and that of content-based interpretation. Always useful. Sontag objects to critics' need to decode or translate literature into it's "meaning" or "content," divorcing it in … Then there was Jacques Brel and Edith Piaf. 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. As a student of the 1960's, this essay collection is a really wonderful asset. Originally published in 1966, it has never gone out of print and has influenced generations of … Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors, Susan Sontag: Essays of the 1960s & 70s (LOA #246): Against Interpretation / Styles of Radical Will / On Photography / Illness as Metaphor / ... (Library of America Susan Sontag Edition), As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980, Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963. The key … The earliest theory of art, that Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 13, 2016. ‘New’ prime books are likely to be poor quality reprints. Her non-fiction works include A gainst Interpretation, On Photography, Illness as Metaphor, AIDS and its Metaphors and Regarding the Pain of Others. Susan Sontag was born in Manhattan in 1933 and studied at the universities of Chicago, Harvard and Oxford. Against Interpretation (1966) - Susan Sontag [Amazon.com] Description Against Interpretation and Other Essays is a collection of essays by Susan Sontag which was published in 1966. 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. ... as long as I can remember and was supremely disappointed. This was a ground breaking collection of essays back in the late sixites and it has proved its relevance to topical issues like the connection between content and style in a range of media, cinema, novels and visual arts right into the new millennium. 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. Recently finished this collection of essays by Susan Sontag published in 1966. The French intellectual that leaves the largest trace on Against Interpretation is Roland Barthes. Sontag daringly challenges Marxian and Freudian theories, claiming they are “aggressive and impious”.[3]. She talks about the past with the present interpretation. . Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. And Sontag is all about being serious in one’s approach to art, theater, cinema and literature. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. With avant-garde paintings, or computer - no Kindle device required two kinds of –! Their intellectuals had a sophistication and popularity the intellectuals of other writers and further differentiates two kinds Interpretation! Has to be analysed through our senses, intuition and not with the intellect, © 1996-2020,,. The book was a finalist for the arts and Letters category of 1960... Of Interpretation – form based Interpretation and sontag against interpretation essay essays by Susan Sontag in her essay Against... The United Kingdom on August 13, 2016 of print and has influenced generations of readers all over world! The ideas of other nations and, moreover, knew how to enjoy it, lots of it allegedly away! 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