The Research On Sontag’s Transformation Of Critical Thinking

By Under the sign of Saturn (1980) as a dividing point, Susan Sontag’s criticismcareer is divided into early and late two stages. Late criticism of the essays shows differenttheoretical style from the early, and achieves the transformation of critical thinking.Sontag’s transformation of critical thinking is related to various factors, and has asignificant impact on literature, art and social life.Susan Sontag’s thinking on art, society and life, experienced three transformation:from focusing on form to focusing on content, from supporting mass culture towithdrawing from mass culture, from the radical left-wing position to the internationalhumanitarian, which shows Sontag’s ideological outlook in different periods. Exploring thereasons for the transformation, we can find the transformation is contributed by thepersonal, ideological and political factors, Sontag’s school experience and the illnessexperience as well as the ideological and political influence by others is the power of herideological transformation. Sontag’s transformation has brought us a wide range ofenlightenments. Currently literary and art circles arguing constantly, the linking Sontag tothe role of intellectuals, The aestheticization of everyday life, and the politicalreconstruction of literary criticism, not only reflects the impacts Sontag has, but also moreunderlines the elitist image of her.