Photography changes are conditions of imprisonment and create a kind of ethics of vision and the feeling that we can contain the whole world in our heads. Chapter summary for susan sontags on photography, in platos cave summary. Course notes susan sontag, in platos cave, from on. Humankind lingers unregenerately in platos cave, still reveling, its age. Humankind lingers unregenerately in platos cave, still reveling, its ageold habit, in mere images of the truth.
Susan sontag 16 january 1933 28 december 2004 was an american writer and filmmaker, novelist, writer of screenplays, professor, literary icon, and political activist. This is a video by helen oenick covering a chapter in susan sontag s book called in plato s cave. For one thing, there are a great many more images around. Plato s writings, the republic, and how a portion of it, plato s allegory of the cave, has rolled around in the hands and minds of its readers.
But being educated by photographs is not like being educated by older, more artisanal images. In the case of greenberg, we read avant garde and kitsch 1939, modernist painting 1960, and avant garde attitudes 1968. Sontag draws an analogy between our viewing of photographs and the prisoners in platos cave. In plato s cave summary humanity, argues susan sontag in in plato s cave in her collection of essays on photography, is still in plato s cave. For one thing, there are a great many more images around, claiming our attention. Susan sontag was born in new york city on january 16, 1933. It humankind lingers unregenerately in platos cave, still reveling, its ageold habit, in mere images of the truth. For sontag, the readings include notes on camp 1964, against interpretation 1966, and in platos cave 1977, the last of which is the subject of this installment of course notes.
Find a summary of this and each chapter of on photography. Susan sontag starts her book on photography with a reference to plato s cave, a dark prison only a few escape. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world. It is a nostalgic time right now, and photographs actively promote.
It remains a solid overview of the field nearly 40 years after it was first published. On photography susan sontags 1977 book on photography is home to some of the most widely cited thinking in the field. In platos cave humankind lingers unregenerately in platos cave, still reveling, its ageold habit, in mere images of the truth. To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed.
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