The book includes selected articles from all three collections of essays by the American writer, researcher and critic of modern culture Susan Sontag (she was born in 1933, studied literature and philosophy at Berkeley and Chicago, Harvard, Oxford and Paris, she made her debut with the novel The Benefactor, 1963, followed by the acclaimed volume of essays Against Interpretation, 1966). Outside our publication are her monothematic works - the book “On Photography” (1976) and two little books devoted to the motives and metaphors of illness in Western culture (1978 and 1989, combined in the 1990 edition of “Doubleday”), as well as several essays not included by the author in collections or written later, until the recent essay on the centenary of cinema. Contents From the compiler. From the book “AGAINST INTERPRETATION”: Against interpretation. Translation by Viktor Golyshev by Simone Weil. Translation by Boris DubinThe artist as an example of a martyr. Translation by Valentina Kulagina-Yartseva “Time of Maturity” by Michel Leiris. Translation by Sergei Dubin Happenings: the art of reckless comparisons. Translation by Boris DubinNotes about camp. Translation by Sergei Kuznetsov From the book “SAMPLES OF RELENTLESS WILL”: Pornographic Imagination. Translation by Boris Dubin “Thinking against yourself”: Reflections on Cioran. Translation by Boris Dubin From the book “UNDER THE SIGN OF SATURN”: Magical Fascism. Translation by Nina TsyrkunUnder the sign of Saturn. Translation by Boris DubinRemembering Roland Barthes. Translation by Sergei Dubin Thought as passion. Translation by Boris DubinComments