Illness as Metaphor

7 hrs. 1 min.

Miscellaneous

Language Russian

Author Susan Sontag

Narrator Anastasiya Kumbaroski

Description

“Illness as a Metaphor” (1978) is an essay by Susan Sontag in which she tries to demystify cancer by exposing the myths and metaphors surrounding this disease. The theme isn’t physical pain itself, but the use of illness as a figure of speech. Sontag argues that cancer is neither a curse nor a punishment; it is simply an illness (one that may be cured). Ten years later, with the outbreak of a new stigmatized disease overflowing with mystifications and punitive metaphors, a continuation to “Illness…” appeared—“AIDS and Its Metaphors” (1989), an essay that expands the field of inquiry to the AIDS pandemic. This book presents both works, in which Sontag shows that “illness is not a metaphor,” and that the most honest approach to illness—as well as the most “healthy” way to be ill—is to try to completely abandon metaphorical thinking.