Against Interpretation by Susan Sontag

Against Interpretation and Other Essays is a collection of essays by Susan Sontag which was published in 1966. It includes some of Sontag's best-known works, including "On Style", "Notes on 'Camp'", and the titular essay "Against Interpretation". In the last, Sontag argued that in the new critical approach to aesthetics the spiritual importance of art is being replaced by the emphasis on the intellect. Rather than recognizing great creative works as possible sources of energy, she argued, contemporary critics were all too often taking art's transcendental power for granted, and focusing instead on their own intellectually constructed abstractions like "form" and "content." In effect, she wrote, interpretation had become "the intellect's revenge upon art." The essay famously finished with the words, "in place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art".

The 640th greatest nonfiction book of all time


This book is on the following lists:

  1. - Donald Barthelme’s Reading List (Believer Mag)
  2. - The 50 Books Everyone Needs to Read, 1963-2013 (Flavor Wire)
  3. - 100 Major Works of Modern Creative Nonfiction (About.com)
  4. - The 100 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time (The Guardian)

Buy This Book

Name Binding Sales Rank Lowest New Lowest Used Published
Against interpretation, and other essays Hardcover 2263047 $328.72 $17.34
Against Interpretation and Other Essays Mass Market Paperback 6365625 $99.99
Against Interpretation: And Other Essays Kindle Edition 83257 $8.89 2013
Against Interpretation, and Other Essays Paperback 1270098 $12.00
Against Interpretation Paperback 3886824 $143.60 $3.78 1994
Susan Sontag Against Interpretation and Other Essays (Penguin Modern Classics) /anglais Paperback 2161252 $11.36 $14.26 2009
Contra la interpretacion y otros ensayos/ Against Interpretation and Other Essays (Spanish Edition) Paperback 3911654 $12.79 2007
Against Interpretation Paperback 3367508 $9.42 $1.90 1990
Contra la interpretación y otros ensayos (Spanish Edition) Kindle Edition 397873 $6.99 2011
Against Interpretation Hardcover 3598913 $27.72
Against Interpretation: And Other Essays Paperback 64147 $12.66 $11.34 2001