Susan Sontag Discusses Tuberculosis and Cancer as Metaphors in a 1978 Radio Interview

Writer Susan Sontag talks about the ideas in her 1978 book Illness as Metaphor in this interview with Studs Terkel. She contrasts the romanticization of tuberculosis in past centuries with the military metaphors relating to the modern disease of cancer, such as the "war on cancer." She finds metaphors surrounding cancer have led to stigmatization, where people try to hide that they have the disease. Unfortunately, magical thinking about disease still persists, and people still feel that they or others get cancer due to some psychological or moral failure. Tuberculosis, by that time, had been cured in most advanced societies, and Sontag suggests that mental illness was the new romantic disease for the suffering artist. Terkel and Sontag throw out many interesting ideas about the language used regarding illness in this hour-long interview.

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Susan Sontag Discusses Tuberculosis and Cancer as Metaphors

by Susan Sontag

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