SUSAN SONTAG
“Literature and Freedom”
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One task of
literature is to formulate questions and construct counter-statements to
the reigning pieties. And even when art is not oppositional, the arts
gravitate toward contrariness. Literature is dialogue; responsiveness.
Literature might be described as the history of human responsiveness to
what is alive and what is moribund as cultures evolve and interact with
one another.
Writers can do something to combat the clichés of our
separateness, our difference - for writers are makers, not just
transmitters, of myths. Literature offers not only myths but
countermyths, just as life offers counter-experiences - experiences that
confound what you thought you thought, or felt, or believed.
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“Literature
and Freedom” was Susan Sontag’s acceptance speech after being awarded
the Friedenspreis, the Peace Prize of the German book trade, in 2003.
