{"title":"Susan Sontag","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"on-photography","title":"On Photography","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst published in 1977, Susan Sontag’s On Photography is a landmark collection of six essays examining how photographs shape our understanding of reality, memory and one another. Beginning with the allegory of Plato’s cave, Sontag explores the camera’s power to turn experience into images, drawing on the work of photographers such as Diane Arbus, Walker Evans and Alfred Stieglitz to question what it means to look, to possess and to record. She considers photography as an instrument of art and documentation, but also as a form of appropriation, a way of collecting the world that can distance us from the very lives it depicts. Her subject is not simply the photograph itself, but the modern appetite for images and the uneasy relationship between seeing and knowing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWritten with the intellectual force and sceptical elegance that distinguish Sontag’s criticism, these essays challenge the assumption that photographs offer transparent windows onto the world. Instead, she asks how images influence taste, shape collective memory and transform suffering into something that can be consumed at a glance. Awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, On Photography became one of the defining works of modern photographic theory, its questions about image-making and visual culture growing ever more pertinent in an age of digital reproduction and incessant photography.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom the book\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e“Photographs really are experience captured, and the camera is the ideal arm of consciousness in its acquisitive mood.”\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e— Susan Sontag, \u003cem\u003eOn Photography\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOn \u003cem\u003eOn Photography\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e“On Photography is to my mind the most original and illuminating study of the subject.”\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e— Calvin Trillin, \u003cem\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardner's EU","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64007713554762,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}]},{"product_id":"against-interpretation-and-other-essays","title":"Against Interpretation and Other Essays","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst published in 1966, Susan Sontag’s Against Interpretation and Other Essays established her as one of the most incisive and influential cultural critics of the twentieth century. Across essays on literature, film, theatre and the visual arts, she challenges the habit of reducing works of art to hidden meanings, political messages or psychological explanations, arguing instead for a more immediate and attentive engagement with form, sensation and style. From the fiction of Samuel Beckett and the films of Alain Resnais to the theatre of Antonin Artaud, Sontag moves with remarkable assurance between artistic traditions, questioning the boundaries that separate high culture from popular expression. Her famous opening essay gives the collection its intellectual centre: a call to experience art more fully, rather than treating it as a puzzle to be solved.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCombining philosophical precision with an unusually vivid appreciation of artistic experience, these essays range across modernism, cinema, literature and the avant-garde, revealing Sontag’s restless curiosity and resistance to intellectual convention. Her writing helped reshape post-war criticism, bringing European thought into conversation with American cultural life while insisting that art’s power lies in more than what it can be made to signify. Against Interpretation and Other Essays remains a defining work of modern criticism, illuminating not only the works it discusses but also the ways we look, read and think.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom the book\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e“In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art.”\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e— Susan Sontag, \u003cem\u003eAgainst Interpretation and Other Essays\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOn \u003cem\u003eAgainst Interpretation and Other Essays\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e“Brilliant, punchy, brisk, and, in a characteristically contemporary way, a little perverse.”\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRobert \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMazzocco, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe New York Review of Books\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardner's EU","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64008165392714,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}]},{"product_id":"illness-as-metaphor","title":"Illness as Metaphor","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFirst published in 1978, Susan Sontag’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIllness as Metaphor\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is a fierce and lucid examination of the stories we tell about disease, and the burden those stories place upon the people who suffer from it. Moving between literature, cultural history and medical thought, Sontag traces the romantic associations of tuberculosis in the nineteenth century and the fear, shame and moral judgement that came to surround cancer in the modern age. She reveals how illness, far from remaining a physical condition, has repeatedly been turned into a symbol of hidden desires, personal failings and social corruption. Her argument is both precise and deeply humane: the metaphors attached to disease can compound suffering by making patients feel responsible for their own afflictions.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWritten with the intellectual force and moral clarity that define her wider work, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIllness as Metaphor\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e challenges readers to reconsider the language through which we understand the body, vulnerability and mortality. Sontag’s scrutiny extends from the novels of Thomas Mann and Charles Dickens to the cultural assumptions embedded in everyday speech, exposing the uneasy relationship between imagination and fact. The book emerged from her own experience of cancer, lending its argument a particular urgency without diminishing its analytical rigour. A landmark of twentieth-century cultural criticism, it remains an influential intervention in debates about illness, stigma and the ethics of representation, and a compelling example of Sontag’s conviction that language shapes the way we live.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the book\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Illness is not a metaphor.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— Susan Sontag, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIllness as Metaphor\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOn \u003cem\u003eIllness as Metaphor\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“One of the most liberating books of its time.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— Newsweek\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardner's EU","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64009094070602,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}]},{"product_id":"regarding-the-pain-of-others","title":"Regarding the Pain of Others","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFirst published in 2003, Susan Sontag’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRegarding the Pain of Others\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e examines the troubling power of photographs to shape our understanding of war, suffering and the lives of strangers. Moving from the Spanish Civil War to the conflicts of the twentieth century and beyond, Sontag asks what it means to look at images of violence, and whether witnessing another person’s pain can lead to genuine understanding or merely satisfy our appetite for the terrible. Drawing on the work of photographers, writers and artists, including Virginia Woolf and Francisco Goya, she questions the assumption that images speak for themselves, exposing the ways in which photographs can be manipulated, misunderstood or stripped of their historical context. Her inquiry is as much moral as aesthetic, confronting the uneasy distance between the spectator and the suffering subject.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWritten nearly three decades after \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOn Photography\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, this incisive essay revisits and complicates Sontag’s earlier thinking about images and their influence on modern consciousness. She considers the limits of sympathy, the politics of representation and the possibility that repeated exposure to atrocity might dull rather than deepen our response to it, while resisting any easy conclusions about what photographs can make us feel or understand. Published in the aftermath of the wars in the Balkans and at the beginning of a new century of televised conflict, the book remains strikingly relevant in an age of continuous digital imagery. It is a searching meditation on the responsibilities of looking, and one of Sontag’s most enduring contributions to the ethics of art and public life.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the book\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“No ‘we’ should be taken for granted when the subject is looking at other people’s pain.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— Susan Sontag, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRegarding the Pain of Others\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOn \u003cem\u003eRegarding the Pain of Others\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Wise and somber. . .Sontag’s closing words acknowledge that there are realities which no picture can convey.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— Los Angeles Times Book Review\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardner's EU","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64009324593482,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}]}],"url":"https:\/\/thelamppostparis.com\/collections\/susan-sontag.oembed","provider":"The Lamp-Post Library \u0026 Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}