Susan Sontag Libri

Può il silenzio parlare con nuovi accenti all'immaginazione dell'uomo contemporaneo? La pornografia ha diritto di cittadinanza nel mondo dell'arte? In che misura è corretto supporre un rapporto di mutua dipendenza fra cinema e teatro? Sono alcune delle questioni che Sontag, scrittrice e saggista tra le più provocatorie e appassionate dell'ultimo cinquantennio (Il benefattore, L'amante del vulcano, Contro l'interpretazione), affronta in questa raccolta di saggi, vera e propria sintesi del pensiero radical americano. Dal cinema rivoluzionario di Bergman e Godard agli scritti di Cioran, al dilemma morale e politico rappresentato dalla guerra del Vietnam, Sontag con Stili di volontà radicale offre così al lettore testimonianza partecipe di una brillante, forse irripetibile generazione di intellettuali "troppo arrabbiati con l'America per riuscire ad amarla ancora".

Nella New York di fine Novecento Susan Sontag decide di scrivere un romanzo dal forte sapore storico, ambientandolo nella Napoli di fine Settecento, metropoli fastosa e disperata alle prese con la Rivoluzione che darà vita alla Repubblica Napoletana. Al centro del racconto un uomo all'apparenza algido e distaccato, animato da un'indomabile passione per il vulcano almeno quanto per l'arte e i ricercati pezzi di antiquariato di cui è collezionista: si tratta dell'ambasciatore inglese Sir William Hamilton, che, tra le altre vicende, si trova coinvolto in un triangolo amoroso che vede in lui uno dei vertici, assieme alla seconda moglie Emma, considerata una delle donne piú belle dell'epoca, e all'ammiraglio Horatio Nelson. Nell'intreccio narrativo le vicende storiche realmente accadute passano attraverso l'immaginazione dell'autrice, diventando vive e creando mondi imprevisti. Sempre presente sullo sfondo del romanzo, il Vesuvio pare simboleggiare la bellezza, l'imprevedibilità, l'inquietante vitalità e la potenza esplosiva delle cose che giacciono sotto la superficie e improvvisamente tornano visibili. Ne "L'amante del vulcano", da molti anni introvabile in Italia, Sontag mette in scena lo spettacolo della Storia, filtrandolo attraverso una forte coscienza autoriale.

This collection presents the later writings of a provocative critic, showcasing essays and speeches from the last quarter-century of her life. It covers a wide array of subjects, including the AIDS epidemic, 9/11, the Iraq war, and the allure of Fascism, alongside reflections on painting, dance, music, and film. The works feature literary portraits of notable figures such as Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, and Jorge Luis Borges, reflecting her passionate curiosity and expansive intellect. With unwavering focus and intensity, she challenges our understanding of human life, as highlighted in her acceptance speech for the Jerusalem Prize in 2000. Her experience in war-torn Sarajevo while staging Waiting for Godot becomes a profound meditation on culture and human dignity, emphasizing what people in conflict zones feel they have lost. Additionally, "AIDS and Its Metaphors" builds on the themes of her earlier work, "Illness as Metaphor," while "Regarding the Pain of Others" addresses the moral complexities of depicting violence and atrocity through photography. This collection serves as a testament to her enduring impact and insight into the human experience.

With the publication of her first book, Against Interpretation, in 1966, Susan Sontag placed herself at the forefront of an era of cultural and political transformation. "What is important now," she wrote, "is to recover our senses ... In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art." She would remain a catalyzing presence, whether writing about camp sensibility, the films of Jean-Luc Godard and Alain Resnais, her experiences as a traveler to Hanoi at the height of the Vietnam War, the aesthetics of science-fiction and pornography, or a range of modern thinkers from Simone Weil to E.M. Cioran. She opened dazzling new perspectives on any subject she addressed, whether the nature of photography or cultural attitudes toward illness. This volume, edited by Sontag's son David Rieff, presents the full texts of four essential books: Against Interpretation, Styles of Radical Will (1969), On Photography (1977), and Illness as Metaphor (1978). Also here as a special feature are six previously uncollected essays including studies of William S. Burroughs and the painter Francis Bacon and a series of reflections on beauty, aging, and the emerging feminist movement.

"These two classic essays were the first works of criticism to break down the boundaries between 'high' and 'low' culture, and made Susan Sontag a literary sensation."--Back cover

Susan Sontag, one of the most internationally renowned and controversial intellectuals of the latter half of the twentieth century, still provokes. In 1978 Jonathan Cott, a founding contributing editor of Rolling Stone magazine, interviewed Sontag first in Paris and later in New York. Only a third of their twelve hours of discussion ever made it to print. Now, more than three decades later, Yale University Press is proud to publish the entire transcript of Sontag’s remarkable conversation, accompanied by Cott’s preface and recollections. Sontag’s musings and observations reveal the passionate engagement and breadth of her critical intelligence and curiosities at a moment when she was at the peak of her powers. Nearly a decade after her death, these hours of conversation offer a revelatory and indispensable look at the self-described "besotted aesthete" and "obsessed moralist." Sontag proclaims a personal credo, declaring: "Thinking is a form of feeling; feeling is a form of thinking."

Fashion photography's pervasive presence has brought the intimate aesthetics of post-80s realism into everybody's lives. This year's Fashion Images de Mode, the fourth volume of an annual series, showcases emerging as well as established photographers. Editor Lisa Lovatt-Smith presents photographs which capture the new directions in current fashion media, such as an increasingly subjective photographer's eye and a heightened reliance on digital image manipulation. This edition includes an introduction by renowned writer Susan Sontag, an essay by Patrick Remy, and sections devoted to prominent photographers Steve Hiett, Phil Poynter, Sean Ellis, Anette Aurell, Ellen Von Unwerth, Mario Sorrenti, Melodie McDaniel, Nathaniel Goldberg, Terry Richardson, Jack Pierson, Peter Lindbergh, David La Chapelle, and Mario Testino.

In her most recent collection of essays, "one of America's foremost critics" (Washington Post ) discusses the relationship between moral and esthetic ideas.