Susan Sontag Susan Sontag Essay

1. Susan Sontag
In Approaching Artaud, Under the Sign of Saturn, written by Susan Sontag, she discusses the level
of impact and influence Antonin Artaud had and continues to have in performance art. This essay
will be a reflective response to the various ideas of who Antonin Artaud was, what he did as a
performer and what his various ideas were in relation to performance art and art in general. This
essay will also include a critical analysis on Susan Sontag ideas regarding Antonin Artaud, supported
by quotations from the provided article specifically assigned, that will assist in the response
expression of her given response in the article.
In the article provided, Sontag expresses that she believed Artaud to be a person on intellectual
influence through...show more content...
Sontag supports this by saying commenting on Artaud, saying that, 'Being a kind of emotional and
moral surgery upon consciousness, it must be necessity, according to Artaud, be 'cruel'.' (Sontag,
1972:40). This leading to his theory of theatre of cruelty. In one's opinion, this was expressing the
need for a sense of urgency in theatre, that it must be difficult for people to digest. Artaud 'imagines
the theater as the place where the body would be reborn in thought and thought would be reborn in
the body.'(Sontag,
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2. Susan Sontag Essay
This theory reading has taken a different approach compared to the first theory reading. As some
readings like to dive into the make up behind a photograph, the second theory reading looked at the
camera and by using this camera what it can inform. Susan Sontag talks about how in today's world
and the past, how everything has been photographed. Photography was a way to escape what was
going on around us. Once the photo was taken, Sontag has stated it guaranteed the photo "longevity,
if not immortality" (Sontag). She then dives into the difference between paintings and movies
compared to what photographs display. Paintings and movie can lose some of the quality while a
photograph does not. The next major aspect focused on was the use of photographs. Besides the
idea of immortality, photos today are used for everyday jobs. These...show more content...
It is amazing how we can fully trust a photograph simply because it gives you second hand
encounter of what was going on. In today's world, I find it amazing that this "proof" can actually
be tampered with. Thinking about the artists who are experts in changing certain photographs,
they could easily change a photograph to show a different aspect which occurred. "A photograph
passes for incontrovertible proof that a given thing happened" (Sontag). If an individual has
committed a crime, all the police need is a photograph or a film which shows the individual
clearly and they will face the crime fully. The increase in technology is a positive and a negative.
The idea of people who are experts in the new technology changing the photograph thus changing
the idea of the photograph is the only negative from this idea of using photographs as evidence.
We love to take photographs as much as we can, if they can be used for aspects such as this we
could help change the way our world is possibly run. However, the photographs need to stay loyal
and
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