Against Interpretation - Classic Text | Alexandria
Against Interpretation, a seminal collection of essays by Susan Sontag published in 1966, serves as more than just a critique of hermeneutics; it is a manifesto for a new way of experiencing art and engaging with culture. Is interpretation truly the key to unlocking meaning, or can it become a barrier that separates us from the raw, visceral impact of artistic expression?
While anxieties about the over-intellectualization of art existed prior, Sontag’s anthology boldly confronted the mid-20th century's burgeoning critical apparatus. Her arguments resonated against a backdrop of Cold War anxieties and burgeoning consumer culture, a period where everything, including art, seemed ripe for analysis and ideological decoding. Critics and scholars, armed with Freudian psychoanalysis and Marxist theory, increasingly prioritized uncovering "hidden" meanings, often obscuring the aesthetic experience itself.
Sontag's essays challenged this prevailing trend, advocating for a sensuous encounter with art over its systematic dissection. She championed "Erotics of Art," urging a return to feeling, perception, and immediacy. Figures like Antonin Artaud and movements such as Pop Art found in Sontag an articulate advocate, their emphasis on sensory overload and surface aesthetics aligning with her call for a more direct, less mediated relationship with the artwork. The very success of Sontag’s polemic, however, presents an intriguing paradox: can a call against interpretation be itself interpreted?
Against Interpretation continues to provoke and inspire. Its arguments echo in contemporary debates about the accessibility of art, the role of the critic, and the very nature of aesthetic experience in a hyper-mediated world. Used both as a guide for engaging with art and an example of how to engage with art, its central question persists: how can we approach art not as a puzzle to be solved, but as an experience to be lived?