Metaphor of disease

Author: Susan Sontag (USA)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-12-01
Features: Susan Sontag Collection. Dedicated to upholding the dignity of free thought in a world filled with illusions and an era where truth is twisted. This book is written by Susan Sontag, who is currently called "one of the most important female intellectuals in the West" by the United States and hailed as "the conscience of the American public." The book includes two important essays by Sontag: "Illness as Metaphor" and "AIDS and Its Metaphors." Sontag reflects on and critiques how diseases such as tuberculosis, AIDS, and cancer are gradually metaphorized in society, transforming from "just a physical illness" into a moral critique and further into a form of political oppression. The essays were originally published in The New Yorker (1978). Due to their significant impact, the two essays were compiled and published multiple times in the following years (the most recent reissue was in 2001), becoming classics of social critique.