麻豆社

Susan Sontag - writer, public intellectual and 鈥渆mpress of American culture鈥� - may have died in 2004, but she continues to shape how we think today, on subjects as diverse as photography, illness, sexuality, and violence.聽鈥�

鈥∟ovelist, poet, and playwright Deborah Levy charts Sontag鈥檚 role as a lucid chronicler of major cultural moments, from the sexual revolution of the 1960s to the AIDS crisis and the Bosnian war.聽鈥�聽

鈥⊿ontag broke with traditional post-war criticism in America, articulating how the boundaries between high culture and popular culture were crumbling. She advocated a sensual approach to seeing and experiencing art, arguing that 鈥渋nterpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art.鈥� She was concerned with what it means to make images out of reality and to pay attention to the suffering of others.聽鈥�聽

鈥ˋ fearless, outspoken thinker, Sontag had a complex relationship with her own gender and sexuality. She was determined to hone a public persona that ensured people took her seriously. Levy examines her views on feminism and considers her attitudes in light of contemporary notions of identity politics and self-expression.聽鈥�聽鈥�

Alongside biographer Benjamin Moser, writer and friend Sigrid Nunez, American essayist Leslie Jamison, and British writer Lisa Appignanesi, Deborah Levy considers Sontag鈥檚 major works - including Against Interpretation, On Photography, and Illness as Metaphor - in the context of our current era, arguing that her rigorous voice and daring imagination are ever vital.聽

Produced by Meara Sharma
A Somethin鈥� Else production for 麻豆社 Radio 4