Chapter 48

Susan Sontag, author of Against Interpretation, describes interpretation as a conscious act of the mind, which illustrates a certain code, certain "rules" of interpretation. She believes there was an old way of interpreting works of art and now there is a different way. According to Sontag, the old way was insistent, but respectful. The new way of interpretation excavates, while at the same time destroying. She also mentions how human beings have begun to develop theories that explain many different phenomena from many different perspectives. The two perspectives mentioned in the chapter by Sontag are the psychoanalytic and the Marxist perspective. The psychoanalytic perspective argues that everything has manifest and latent functions; the manifest content being what happens in a story and the latent being what the events of the story mean and how they affect the reader. The Marxist perspective ties works of art to political and ideological considerations, arguing that these works are manipulated by the "ruling" class which often spreads "false consciousness" in the masses. Sontag argues that interpretation is the "revenge of the intellect upon art", however that is only true because human beings have intellects and feel it necessary to use them whenever possible.