Against Interpretation
And Other Essays
The argument that hunting for a work's hidden meaning is a way of avoiding the work itself.
Susan Sontag’s first essay collection argued that criticism had become a way of translating art into content and then discussing the content instead, and that what was needed was attention to form, surface and sensation. The title piece is the manifesto; the rest ranges over Camus, science fiction films, happenings and camp. Published in 1966, it made her reputation, and she spent much of the rest of her career qualifying it.
Recommended by 1 Person
Andrea Long Chu
The title is so good that it can trick you into agreeing with it on instinct. Sontag's approach to criticism is always grounded in her undeniable stylishness, even when her actual claims about art are preposterous or insufferable.
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