Susan Sontag duas vezes dissonante: intelectual e feminista

Abstract

This study proposes to investigate how the writer Susan Sontag fits into the intellectual panorama of the late 20th century and the first years of the 21st century. Susan Sontag (1933-2004) was a writer, art critic and human rights activist, intervening with her opinions against American policy. At times, the writer adhered to the ideas defended by the feminist movement and, at others, she was completely behind. Because of this, this work also aims to reflect on the insertion and/or condition of feminist intellectuals in public life dominated by men. In this approach, we seek to map the paths that shaped what is understood by feminism with the purpose of identifying the writer's relationship with the women's political movement, at the same time, which proposes to place her within the panorama of feminist discussions. Based on studies carried out by Simone de Beauvoir (1980), Margareth Rago (2001), Nancy Fraser (2009), Michelle Perrot (2012), bell hooks (2019) and, so on, the dialogue between the movement feminist and the thought of the writer under study. The formation of the intellectual is also discussed, observing how a writer fits into the scenario that classifies and defines the category of intellectuals, based on the considerations made by Edward Said (2005; 2007), as well as the notions formulated about the function and nature of the intellectual, carried out by Antonio Gramsci (1982) and Norberto Bobbio (1997). Based on the logical theorizations of Virginia Woolf (1938; 2021), Jean-Paul Sartre (1948; 2004), Jean Starobinski (1985), Antonio Candido (1988; 2011), among others, we analyze how art for the writer was never separated from politics and how the aesthetic standards present in artistic production obey a set of ethical norms followed by a thinker who defended the exercise of truth and, to the same extent, praised the practice of freedom. It can be said that Susan Sontag's production was anchored in an idea of engagement. In this way, we seek to examine the intersections between feminism and activism in favor of human rights within the selected corpus.