Whether youve loved the book or not, if you give your honest and detailed thoughts then people will find new books that are right for them. Machiavelli and hobbes fixed on one part of medical wisdom, the importance of cutting off serious disease early, while it is relatively easy to control. An incisive extended essay, illness as metaphor exposes mythologies connected with two of the most fearful of maladies, tuberculosis and cancer. Aids and its metaphors was published in 1988, while illness as a metaphor was published ten years earlier, before the emergence of aids into the global conscious. A paper on the web i just came across discusses sontags essay. Sontag, herself, ties the two texts together by beginning the second one with a response to critics of the first text and explaining how she was misinterpreted. Illness as metaphor served as a way for susan sontag to express her opinions on the use of metaphors in order to refer to illnesses, with her main focuses being tuberculosis and cancer. Illness as metaphor is a 1978 work of critical theory by susan sontag, in which she challenges. It appears to have some relevance to the subject of this blog.
Complete summary of susan sontags illness as metaphor. The most truthful way of regarding illnessand the healthiest way of being illis one most purified of, most resistant to, metaphoric thinking. Other readers will always be interested in your opinion of the books youve read. A cancer patient herself when she was writing the book, sontag 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.
Although we all prefer to use only the good pass port, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place. Pdf susan soniags studies on illness and metaphor raise a host of. She is particularly concerned with the metaphorical sue of tuberculosis in the 19th century and cancer in the 20th. Then, in the name of the disease that is, using it as a metaphor, that horror is imposed on other things. In the 19th century it was tuberculosis, and by 1978 it was cancer. Susan sontag was born in manhattan in 1933 and studied at the universities of chicago, harvard and oxford. A cancer patient herself when she was writing the book, sontag shows how the metaphors and myths surrounding.
She states her main point on the first page of this long essay. In it, she addresses both the advantages and the disadvantages of metaphors. She is the author of four novels, a collection of stories, several plays, and six books of essays, among them illness as metaphor and aids and its metaphors. Susan sontag s illness as metaphor was the first to point out the accusatory side of the metaphors of empowerment that seek to enlist the patients will to resist disease. Sontag, herself diagnosed with breast cancer at the time of the writing a fact she does not disclose in the initial essay itself compares eighteenth and early nineteenth century discourse about tuberculosis to present day language about cancer. In french, a moldering stone facade is still lepreuse. Sep 08, 2007 sontag cites example after example from novels, essays, poems, and medical writings to show how cancer has traditionally been associated with repression and defeat. Her moving work, against interpretation, is regarded as a quintessential text from the 60s. It is largely as a result of her work that the howto health books avoid the blameridden term cancer personality and speak more soothingly of diseaseproducing. It is seen as a shameful disease and always as inevitably fatal, even in the late 20th century, by. A cancer patient herself when she was writing the book, sontag shows how the metaphors and myths surrounding certain illnesses, especially cancer, add greatly to the suffering of patients and often inhibit them from seeking proper treatment. Aids and its metaphors find, read and cite all the research you need on researchgate. Some metaphors are mortifying, they make the experience of illness worse.
Published in 1978, illness as metaphor is a polemic against what she perceived as the current practice of using cultural metaphors to describe serious illness. Nov 23, 2015 in l978 susan sontag wrote illness as metaphor, a classic work described by newsweek as one of the most liberating books of its time. Illness as metaphor and aids and its metaphors 1978 and 1988. Illness as metaphor by sontag, susan, 1933publication date 1978 topics. Likewise, sontags assertion that aids is unlikely to be a new disease p. Although we all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify. Illness is the night side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Sontag explores how attitudes to disease are formed in society, and attempts to deconstruct them. Likewise, sontag s assertion that aids is unlikely to be a new disease p. Illness as metaphor is the title of a book by susan sontag.
Disease as political metaphor by susan sontag the new. Illness as metaphor is highly polemical, and as such, is a suburb piece of polemic. Discussion of sontags illness as metaphor 211 sontags essay is hurried and sometimes careless. Tb patient narratives and susan sontags illness as metaphor. In this companion book to her illness as metaphor 1978, sontag extends her arguments about the metaphors attributed to cancer to the aids crisis. Sontag cites example after example from novels, essays, poems, and medical writings to show how cancer has traditionally been associated with repression and defeat. The book contrasts the view points and metaphors associated with each disease. Syphilis was thought to be not only a horrible disease but a demeaning, vulgar one.
Jan 10, 2003 susan sontag was born in manhattan in 1933 and studied at the universities of chicago, harvard and oxford. Request this item to view in the librarys reading rooms using your library card. Jan 30, 2014 in most of these places, a few days or a week have been enough. In l978 susan sontag wrote illness as metaphor, a classic work described by newsweek as one of the most liberating books of its time. Something is said to be diseaselike, meaning that it is disgusting or ugly.
Her books include novels, a collection of short stories, and works of nonfiction, including against interpretation. But it provokes us to think about metaphor, and it encourages us to look for symbolic. In 1978 susan sontag wrote illness as metaphor, a classic work described by newsweek as one of the most liberating books of its time. Antidemocrats used it to evoke the desecrations of an egalitarian age. This interest led me to meet with chaplain white and discuss in detail his opinion on chapter six from illness as metaphor. Two diseases have been spectacularly, and similarly, encumbered by the trappings of. Susan sontags illness as metaphor was the first to point out the accusatory side of the metaphors of empowerment that seek to enlist the patients will to resist disease. Other major themes presented in the lecture greatly intrigued me.
Further report when i have had a chance to read it through. Most of these metaphors are lurid, and they turn each disease into a mythology. In 1978 susan sontag wrote illness as metaphor, a classic work described by. Aids and its metaphors is a 1989 work of critical theory by susan sontag. Her book is not about illness, but about the use of illness as a figure or metaphor. Oct 01, 20 in 1978 susan sontag wrote illness as metaphor, a classic work described by newsweek as one of the most liberating books of its time. Illness as metaphor susan sontag farrar, straus and giroux new york 1978. Chaplain white reflected upon the correlation between this section of sontags essay and the play oedipus rex.
Illness as metaphor and aids and its metaphors by susan sontag. Sontag is a human rights activist, playwright, essayist and cultural critic. Complete summary of susan sontag s illness as metaphor. Get illness as metaphor and aids its metaphors reprint pdf file for free from our online library pdf file. Illness as metaphor and aids and its metaphors susan sontag. Illness as metaphor is a nonfiction work written by susan sontag and published in 1978. First tb, then cancer, she perceives, have stood for enormities. A probing essay on the nature of human reactions to illness.
Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. The disease metaphor was used in political philosophy to reinforce the call for a rational response. Click on a datetime to view the file as it appeared at that time. Because their causes appeared to be multiple and were as yet unknown, because they struck at individuals, they were regarded as mysterious afflictions and construed, according to the fashions of their times, as diseases of. Illness as metaphor susan sontag national library of. Perhaps because the medical and public health response to aids has explicitly avoided metaphor and has worked toward dispelling societal myths, sontag writes more evenhandedly about aids and its metaphors. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext. Pdf on sep 8, 2007, james curran and others published illness as metaphor. Two diseases have been spectacularly, and simi larly, encumbered by the trappings of metaphor. I bought a copy today at a local bookshop that is closing down with a 50% off sale. Illness is the nightside of life, a more onerous citi zenship. Dec 21, 20 click on a datetime to view the file as it appeared at that time.
In regarding the pain of others susan sontag once again changes the way we think about the uses and meanings of images in our world, and offers an important reflection about how war itself is waged pdf and understood in our time. Illness is the nightside of life, a more onerous citizenship. The most truthful way of regarding illness and the healthiest way of being illis one most purified of, most resistant to, metaphoric thinking. Illness as metaphor and aids and its metaphors free pdf. Reflections on illness and metaphor, 30 years after susan sontag. Illness as more than metaphor by david rieff my mother, susan sontag, lived almost her entire 71 years believing that she was a person who would beat.
It is seen as a shameful disease and always as inevitably fatal, even in the late 20th century, by which time treatments had improved. After the us writer susan sontag underwent chemotherapy for breast cancer, however, she took a different approach. She challenged the blame the victim mentality behind the language society often uses to describe diseases and those who suffer from them. The disease metaphor could also be used to encourage rulers to another kind of foresight. Other articles where illness as metaphor is discussed.
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