New Releases by Susan Sontag

Despite their status as intellectual giants of the twentieth century, John Berger and Susan Sontag’s artistic collaboration – and intense friendship – remains virtually unknown. Published for the first time, To Tell a Story offers a glimpse into their shared history that spanned nearly a quarter-century. From sources such as their eponymous film broadcast, rare personal letters and archival recordings, the composite fragments build a portrait of a relationship that was often lively and challenging, sometimes trivial and always affectionate. Berger and Sontag’s voices echo throughout these pages, riffing off the other as they grapple with their respective concerns. Above all, their conversations reveal a deep reciprocal admiration and an exchange of ideas about storytelling, the self and society that informed their own work.

Qu’est-ce que le '' Camp '' ? Une façon de voir le monde autant qu’une manière d’être, selon Sontag. Cet art de valoriser l’artifice pourrait avoir pris corps pour la première fois dans Les fourberies de Scapin, de Molière, en 1671, autour de la figure de Louis XIV. Mozart, Greta Garbo et sa beauté androgyne, le film King Kong de 1933... tous incarnent la sensibilité Camp – un mélange d’extravagance, de ludisme et de sérieux. Le Camp, en tant que subversion des normes sexuelles, est aussi une forme d’expression et un regard propres aux communautés queers. À travers Le style Camp et Culture et sensibilité d’aujourd’hui, Susan Sontag théorise notre '' nouvelle sensibilité '' et redéfinit la fonction de l’art depuis la révolution industrielle. Premiers textes critiques à abolir les frontières entre '' haute '' et '' basse '' culture, ces deux essais emblématiques comptent parmi les plus influents des années 1960 et ont fait de Susan Sontag une véritable sensation littéraire.

'' Peut-être esquivera-t-elle d’une plaisanterie, ou refusera-t-elle de répondre avec une indignation mutine. “Ce n’est pas le genre de question qu’on pose à une dame !” Ou bien, après un instant d’hésitation, embarrassée mais bravache, il est possible qu’elle dise la vérité. Ou qu’elle mente. De toute façon, ni la vérité, ni l’esquive, ni le mensonge ne la soulageront du caractère désagréable de la question. Pour une femme, se voir contrainte d’avouer le nombre de ses années est, passé un certain âge, toujours une petite épreuve. ''

«Se le donne cambieranno, gli uomini saranno costretti a cambiare. Ma non lo faranno senza opporre una considerevole resistenza. Nessuna classe dominante ha mai abdicato ai propri privilegi senza lottare». Uguaglianza, bellezza, invecchiamento, sessualità, fascismo. Ancora attualissimi, i saggi sulle donne di una delle pensatrici piú formidabili, originali e influenti del Novecento sono una chiave irrinunciabile per comprendere la modernità. «Le idee piú interessanti sono le eresie», scriveva Sontag e i testi qui raccolti ne sono la dimostrazione. Sulle donne riunisce per la prima volta i pezzi piú importanti sulla questione femminile pubblicati da Sontag tra il 1972 e il 1975. Pagine seminali con le quali Sontag, come dice Benedetta Tobagi nella splendida prefazione, «dimostra una capacità critica che combina le qualità di una mente affilata e l''attitudine caratteriale a essere sempre e comunque una "scrittrice antagonistica, una scrittrice polemica"». Invecchiare: due pesi e due misure Il terzo mondo delle donne La bellezza di una donna: fonte di discredito o di potere? La bellezza: come cambierà? Fascino fascista Femminismo e fascismo: uno scambio epistolare tra Adrienne Rich e Susan Sontag L''intervista a «Salmagundi»

A pithy and brilliant introduction to Susan Sontag’s writing on women, gathering early essays on aging, equality, beauty, sexuality, and fascism Susan Sontag was one of the most formidable, original, and influential thinkers of the last century. “The most interesting ideas are heresies,” she remarked, and indeed, her writing rejects the familiar and refuses party lines. On Women presents seven essays and exchanges, spanning a range of subjects: the challenges and humiliations women face as they age; the relationship between women’s liberation and class struggle; beauty, which Sontag calls “that over-rich brew of so many familiar opposites”; feminism; fascism; and film. Taken together, these pieces—relentlessly curious, historically precise, politically robust, and allergic to easy categorization Sontag’s inimitable mind at work.

»Ihre Prosa gibt ein schmerzhaftes Gefühl von Ungewissheit preis.« (New Yorker) – Susan Sontags wichtigste Erzählungen endlich auf Deutsch Es sind Lebensthemen, die Susan Sontag in ihren Erzählungen bewegen: Mit 14 besucht sie Thomas Mann in seinem kalifornischen Exil – mit hinreißender Ironie beschreibt sie die Verletzlichkeit ihres jugendlichen Ichs. Jahre später erfährt Sontag von der AIDS-Diagnose eines engen Freundes – ihre Ängste und Hoffnungen werden zum Stimmenchor des intellektuellen New York. Und lange nach ihren berühmten Essays über Fotografie beschäftigt sie sich wieder mit dem Verhältnis von Bildern und Realität – in der Geschichte von einem Vogel und einem Nachkommen Noahs. Dieser Band versammelt wichtige Erzählungen der großen amerikanischen Autorin endlich auf Deutsch – sie zeigen sie von ihrer persönlichsten Seite.

‘Sontag herinnert ons eraan dat scherp en onafhankelijk nadenken – over politiek, over kunst, over seks, over ziekte – meer is dan een teken van intelligentie. Ze herinnert ons eraan dat het een morele opgave is.’ – Joost de Vries MET NIEUW VERTAALDE ESSAYS Tegen interpretatie is Susan Sontags non-fictiedebuut waarmee ze de National Book Award won. Het is een bundeling van haar bekendste en belangrijkste essays over stijl in de kunst, schrijvers, toneel, film en over culturele verschijnselen – zoals het beroemde ‘Notities over “camp”’. Alle denken is interpretatie, maar dat betekent niet dat het af en toe onjuist is tégen interpretatie te zijn. De essays van Susan Sontag zijn hartstochtelijke, overtuigende commentaren op onze maatschappij, van een groot denker en scherp essayist met een inspirerend, radicaal gedachtegoed. ‘Tegen interpretatie verblindt vanwege de eruditie die destijds indrukwekkend was, en nu nog steeds.’ – Benjamin Moser, auteur van de biografie Sontag. Haar leven en werk ‘Telkens stimulerend, opvallend profetisch.’ – The Independent ‘Een duizelingwekkende intellectuele prestatie.’ – Vogue ‘Sontag levert voldoende stof tot nadenken om de grootste intellectuele honger te stillen.’ – The Times

‘Nog altijd domineert Over fotografie het denken over fotografie. De schrijfstijl is vintage Sontag: trefzeker, stoer en stellig. Ze bracht de angsten en ambivalenties die veel mensen voelen tegenover moderne technologie in het algemeen, en fotografie in het bijzonder, messcherp onder woorden. Zelfs nu kun je amper een column, recensie of boek over fotografie lezen waarin Sontag niet wordt aangehaald – zeker wanneer het over foto’s van oorlog, honger of geweld gaat.’ – Lynn Berger in De Correspondent Over fotografie is een boeiend relaas over wat foto’s eigenlijk zijn, over esthetische en morele problemen waarmee we door hun alomtegenwoordigheid in onze mediacultuur worden geconfronteerd en over de (on)bedoelde effecten van fotografie. Het is een klassiek geworden, baanbrekend onderzoek naar de rol en de betekenis van beelden. Sontag weet het moderne leven zo scherpzinnig te vangen dat kritische vragen niet uit kunnen blijven. ‘Sontag heeft ons als geen ander geleerd na te denken over de rol en het effect van fotografie in onze tijd. Prachtige essays.’ – Trouw ‘Een mijlpaal in de reflectie over fotografie. De opstellen over camp en pornografie zijn virtuoos.’ – De Tijd ‘Over fotografie is het origineelste en meest verlichte boek over dit onderwerp.’ – The New Yorker ‘Elke pagina roept belangrijke en prikkelende vragen op, en bespreekt die vervolgens op de beste, briljante manier.’ – The New York Times Book Review

From one of the greatest prose stylists of any generation, the essay that inspired the theme of the 2019 Met Gala, Camp: Notes on Fashion Many things in the world have not been named; and many things, even if they have been named, have never been described. One of these is the sensibility—unmistakably modern, a variant of sophistication but hardly identical with it—that goes by the cult name of “Camp.” So begins Susan Sontag’s seminal essay “Notes on ‘Camp.’ ” Originally published in 1964 and included in her landmark debut essay collection Against Interpretation, Sontag’s notes set out to define something that even the most well-informed could describe only as “I know it when I see it.” At once grounded in a sweeping history (Louis XIV was pure Camp) and entirely provisional, Camp delights in low and high culture alike. Tiffany lamps, the androgynous beauty of Greta Garbo, King Kong (1933), and Mozart all embody the Camp sensibility for Sontag—an almost ineffable blend of artifice, extravagance, playfulness, and a deadly seriousness. At the time Sontag published her essay, Camp, as a subversion of sexual norms, had also become a private code of signification for queer communities. In nearly every genre and form—from visual art, décor, and fashion to writing, music, and film—Camp continues to be redefined today, as seen in the 2019 Met Gala that took Sontag’s essay as the basis for its theme. “Style is everything,” Sontag tells us, and as Time magazine points out, “ ‘Notes on “Camp” ’ launched a new way of thinking,” paving the way for a whole new style of cultural criticism, and describing what is, in many ways, the defining sensibility of our culture today.

An unprecedented collection of the controversial later writings of the greatest and most provocative critic of our time. Susan Sontag was the most influential critic of her time. This second volume in Library of America''s definitive Sontag edition gathers all the collected essays and speeches from her last quarter-century, brilliant works whose subjects, from the AIDS epidemic, 9/11, the Iraq war, and the perverse allure of Fascism to painting, dance, music, film, and scintillating literary portraits of such writers as Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, Antonin Artaud, Machado de Assis, Jorge Luis Borges, Nadine Gordimer, Joseph Brodsky, W. G. Sebald, Marina Tsvetayeva, and Robert Walser, bear enduring witness to passionate curiosity and expansive intellect. She brings to every subject an unwavering focus and intensity, and a deep commitment to "extending our sense of what a human life can be," as she said on accepting the Jerusalem Prize in 2000. An account of her 1993 residence in war-torn Sarajevo to stage a production of Waiting for Godot becomes a meditation on the meaning of culture: "Culture, serious culture, is an expression of human dignity-which is what people in Sarajevo feel they have lost." AIDS and Its Metaphors marks a further development of the central ideas of her classic Illness as Metaphor, while Regarding the Pain of Others explores eloquently the troubling moral issues surrounding photographic depictions of violence, cruelty, and atrocity. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

Ensaios clássicos de uma das maiores intelectuais do século XX em edição acessível. A vontade radical, segunda coletânea de ensaios de Susan Sontag, dá continuidade às investigações empreendidas em seu livro anterior, Contra a interpretação. São textos escritos entre 1966 e 1969 que tratam de cinema, literatura, política e, caso do mais célebre deles, pornografia. Os cineastas Ingmar Bergman e Jean-Luc Godard, o dramaturgo Samuel Beckett e os escritores Rainer Maria Rilke e William Burroughs compõem o panteão da cultura moderna analisado nesses textos. Completam o volume reflexões agudas sobre o pensamento do filósofo romeno Emil Cioran e ainda o clássico libelo contra a guerra do Vietnã, escrito por ocasião da visita de Sontag a Hanói.

Like Pier Paolo Pasolini, Alain Robbe-Grillet, and Marguerite Duras, Susan Sontag has come to filmmaking in the course of a career as a novelist and essayist. In 1968 she accepted a Swedish studio''s invitation to write and direct a move in Stockholm. Duet for Cannibals is the result. Frederic Tuten, in Vogue magazine, wrote: "Duet for Cannibals is a witty, bone-dry serio-comedy that fascinates and disturbs in turn....Dr. Arthur Bauer, attractive in a swinish way, fiftyish, arch-revolutionary theoretician engaged in writing his memoirs, is Sontag''s anti- or false revolutionary, an arrogant, self-aggrandizing trickster who blurs together revolution and his ego. Francesca, Bauer''s neurotic, elegantly seductive wife, supports her husband''s mystifications while composing her own. Tomas, an earnest student revolutionary hired by Bauer to catalogue his documents, and Ingrid, Tomas''s impressionable girlfriend, are the fodder for the elder couple''s psychological and sexual feast." With this film Susan Sontag joins the company of writers-filmmakers and offers her own special contribution to cinematic art. Note: This eBook edition does not contain images.

This third essay collection by America''s leading essayist brings together her most important critical writing from 1972 to 1980, in which she explores some of the most influential artists and thinkers of our time.

In eight stories, this singular collection of short fiction written over the course of ten years explores the terrain of modern urban life. In reflective, telegraphic prose, Susan Sontag confronts the reader with exposed workings of an impassioned intellect in narratives seamed with many of the themes of her essays—the nature of knowing, our relationship with the past, and the future in an alienated present.

The Benefactor, Susan Sontag''s first book and first novel, originally published in 1963, introduced a unique writer to the world. In the form of a memoir by a latter-day Candide named Hippolyte, The Benefactor leads us on a kind of psychic Grand Tour, in which Hippolyte''s violently imaginative dream life becomes indistinguishable from his surprising experiences in the ''real world.'' Sontag''s novel supplies a fascinating, knowing, acerbic portrait of a certain bohemian demimonde that flourished in France until quite recently. More important, The Benefactor is a novel about ideas-especially religious ideas-unlike any other: funny, acrobatic, disturbing, profound.

In l978 Sontag wrote Illness As Metaphor. A cancer patient herself at the time, she shows how the metaphors and myths surrounding certain illnesses, especially cancer, add greatly to the suffering of the patients and often inhibit them from seeking proper treatment. By demystifying the fantasies surrounding cancer, Sontag shows cancer for what it is - just a disease. Cancer is not a curse, not a punishment, certainly not an embarrassment, and highly curable, if good treatment is found early enough. Almost a decade later, with the outbreak of a new, stigmatised disease replete with mystifications and punitive metaphors, Sontag wrote Aids and its Metaphors, extending the argument of the earlier book to the AIDS pandemic.

"Quem inventou o casamento era um torturador astuto. É uma instituição destinada a embotar os sentimentos." Reflexões agudas como essa, entre a amargura e a ironia, fazem parte da matéria-prima destes Diários, espécie de buraco da fechadura privilegiado por onde se enxerga a intimidade mental e existencial dos anos de juventude de uma das intelectuais mais influentes da América do pós-guerra. Selecionados por seu filho David Rieff depois de sua morte, os trechos ora publicados exibem um foco temático irrequieto que se desloca num caleidoscópio de assuntos da esfera pessoal e cultural. A par do seu vasto itinerário de leituras e experiências de fruição artística, presenciamos aqui, em registro confessional, a descoberta adolescente da sexualidade, as vivências como caloura precoce na Universidade da Califórnia, onde ingressou aos dezesseis anos, o breve casamento aos dezoito com seu professor Philip Rieff e as duas grandes relações amorosas mantidas com mulheres na sua fase de jovem adulta. Os Diários nos transportam, enfim, para o denso e rico mundo mental de uma jovem Susan Sontag em plena batalha diária para se tornar Susan Sontag.

''I intend to do everything. . . I shall anticipate pleasure everywhere and find it too, for it is everywhere! I shall involve myself wholly. . . everything matters!'' So wrote Susan Sontag in May 1949 at the age of sixteen, in the early pages of this selection from her private diaries written in her youth and early adulthood. Rebornis a kaleidoscopic self-portrait of one of America''s greatest writers and intellectuals, teeming with Sontag''s voracious curiosity and appetite for life. We watch the young Sontag''s complex self-awareness, share in her encounters with the writers who informed her thinking, and engage with the profound challenge of writing itself - all filtered through the inimitable detail of everyday life.

"Literatura é liberdade", afirmou Susan Sontag pouco mais de um ano antes de sua morte, em 2004. A frase hoje soa como justificativa para toda uma vida de compromisso com o amor à literatura e um ferrenho ativismo político. Ao mesmo tempo reúne os últimos textos da ensaísta e romancista que nunca aceitou separar a estética da ética. O turbulento início do século XXI ajudou a autora a se manter fiel até o fim ao espírito de contestação que ela manifestou ao se tornar conhecida, nos anos 1960. Nas páginas de Ao mesmo tempo, os ensaios literários são obrigados a conviver com textos de intervenção pública escritos no calor dos acontecimentos. Destaca-se a lucidez de Sontag diante dos atentados terroristas de 11 de setembro de 2001 e da prática de tortura na prisão de Abu Ghraib, no Iraque. Mas essa incessante vigilância política nada tinha de antiamericanista. Ao contrário, ela manifesta o amplo cosmopolitismo que a autora declara ter aprendido com a literatura. Para Sontag, seu modo crítico de ser uma cidadã americana lhe assegurava também a cidadania plena na sua almejada "república internacional das letras".

"A writer is someone who pays attention to the world," Susan Sontag said in her 2003 acceptance speech for the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, and no one exemplified this definition more than she. Sontag''s incisive intelligence, expressive brilliance, and deep curiosity about art, politics, and the writer''s responsibility to bear witness have secured her place as one of the most important thinkers and writers of the twentieth century. At the Same Time gathers sixteen essays and addresses written in the last years of Sontag''s life, when her work was being honored on the international stage, that reflect on the personally liberating nature of literature, her deepest commitment, and on political activism and resistance to injustice as an ethical duty. She considers the works of writers from the little-known Soviet novelist Leonid Tsypkin, who struggled and eventually succeeded in publishing his only book days before his death; to the greats, such as Nadine Gordimer, who enlarge our capacity for moral judgment. Sontag also fearlessly addresses the dilemmas of post-9/11 America, from the degradation of our political rhetoric to the appalling torture of prisoners in Abu Ghraib. At the Same Time, which includes a foreword by her son, David Rieff, is a passionate, compelling work from an American writer at the height of her powers, who always saw literature "as a passport to enter a larger life, the zone of freedom."

Twenty-five years after her classic "On Photography," Sontag returns to the subject of visual representations of war and violence in the culture today. She once again changes the way readers think about the uses and meanings of images in the world, and offers an important reflection about how war itself is waged--and understood.

El cancer y el SIDA, como antano ocurria con la tuberculosis, son enfermedades consideradas misteriosas. En torno a ellas los prejuicios, las fobias y los miedos han tejido una red de complicadas metaforas que dificultan su comprension y, a veces, su cura. Este volumen resulta imprescindible para entender esas fantasias punitivas creadas alrededor de dos males tipicos de nuestra era.