Against Interpretation, and Other Essays (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Susan Sontag
- First Published: 1966
- Type of Work: Essays
- Genres: Criticism, Nonfiction, Essays
- Subjects: Culture, Ideology, Philosophy or philosophers, Authors or writers, Literature, Education or educators, Art or artists, Writing, Books, Creative process, Symbolism, Popular culture, Films, movies, or motion pictures, Anthropology or anthropologists, Avant-garde
Sontag's signature essay, “Against Interpretation,” like its companion piece, “On Style,” highlights her concern with form. Sontag feels she is writing at a time when critics tend to discuss content, reducing works of art to their messages or themes. What art says is less important than how the art expresses itself, Sontag insists. In her view, to treat art as simply a conveyer of content is to negate the idea of art itself.
“Against Interpretation” provides an erudite summary of the history of literary criticism, in which Sontag takes issue with Aristotle's...
[The entire page is 801 words long]
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