Structure

The book is structured in five sections and each part is loosely topical, containing short, digestible essays around a central subject. Part one is largely methodological in nature and contains the essays "Against Interpretation" and "On Style." These pieces announce the tone and overall analytical approach of the remainder of the book. They contain many of the overall themes that concern Sontag, including an emphasis on aesthetic form, a critique of moralism, and an interest in stylized modes of expression. Part two takes literature, philosophy, and literary criticism as its organizing subject. The essays included in this section discuss and review a variety of prominent figures such as Simone Weil, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Georg Lukacs. Each essay takes up a single work by the writer in question, however each is written in an introductory and expository manner that makes the author's contributions accessible to a...