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Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors
Series: Penguin Modern Classics
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Check link for latest rating. ( 7,478 ratings, 811 reviews)
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Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
Reveals that 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. By demystifying the fantasies surrounding cancer, this study shows cancer for what it is.
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Description
Illness as Metaphor is an examination of the fantasies concocted around conditions such as cancer and tuberculosis in our cultural history. Susan Sontag argues that illness is not a metaphor and that the most truthful way of regarding illness—and the healthiest way of being ill—is to resist such thinking.
Her examples of metaphors and images of illness are taken from medical and psychiatric thinking, as well as from sources ranging from Greek and Medieval writings to Dickens, Thomas Mann, Henry James, Frank Lloyd Wright, Auden, and others.
AIDS and Its Metaphors, the sequel, is obviously written in the light of the AIDS crisis. Sontag states that our metaphors for AIDS and its effects may be damaging; they suggest an apocalypse in personal and social terms, and therefore threaten not only the victims of the disease but all of society.
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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Michael Ignatieff in The New Republic highlights Susan Sontag's seminal critique of the accusatory metaphors in medical language. Her work led to a shift away from terms like 'cancer personality' to more empathetic language in health discussions. Sontag extends her analysis from cancer to AIDS, showcasing the intellectual challenge these fear-inducing metaphors present.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780141187129
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 03 July 2009
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Penguin Classics
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 11.0mm
Width: 130.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 146g
Pages: 192
About the Author
Susan Sontag was born in Manhattan in 1933 and studied at the universities of Chicago, Harvard and Oxford. Her non-fiction works include Against Interpretation, On Photography, Illness as Metaphor, AIDS and its Metaphors and Regarding the Pain of Others. She is also the author of four novels, a collection of stories and several plays. Her books are translated into thirty-two languages. In 2001 she was awarded the Jerusalem Prize for the body of her work, and in 2003 she received the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature and the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. She died in December 2004. Penguin will publish Sontag on Film in October 2016.
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