Susan Sontag (1933-2004) spoke of the promiscuity of art and literature-the willingness of great artists and writers to challenge and provoke, to scandalize a spectator or reader with the critical frankness, complexity, and sometimes even the beauty of their work. Sontag's life and work were no less promiscuous. She wrote deeply and engagingly about a limitless range of subjects-theater, sex, politics, novels, torture, illness-and courted celebrity and controversy both publicly and privately. Throughout her career, she not only earned adulation but also provoked scorn. Her living was the embodiment of scandal. In this collection, Terry Castle, Nancy K. Miller, Wayne Koestenbaum, E. Ann Kaplan, and other leading scholars confront Sontag's groundbreaking life and works anew. Against Interpretation; "Notes on Camp;" Letter from Hanoi; On Photography; Illness as Metaphor; I, Etcetera; and The Volcano Lover-these works form the center of essays no less passionate and imaginative than Sontag herself.
