Handout 2

Understanding Sontag: Art as Experience

This handout explores Sontag’s statements on artistic form, style, and silence in three influential essays: “Against Interpretation” (1964), “On Style” (1965), and “The Aesthetics of Silence” (1967)

ART & LIT LESSON 1: HANDOUT 2

Time Required

1 class period (45-60 min)

Resources

HANDOUTS:

Handout 2

TEACHING PLAN:

Teach Handout 2

Subject Areas

  • Art and Culture

Medium > Visual Arts
Subject Matter > Art History

  • History and Social Studies

Themes > Culture

  • Literature and Language Arts

Genre > Essay
Place > American
Place > Modern World

Student Skills

  • Analysis
  • Compare and contrast
  • Critical thinking
  • Cultural analysis
  • Discussion
  • Evaluating arguments
  • Interpretation
  • Literary analysis
  • Making inferences and drawing conclusions
  • Summarizing
  • Synthesis
  • Textual analysis
  • Visual art analysis

Common Core Standards

  • ELA Reading: 1-4, 7, 10
  • ELA Speaking & Listening: 1-2
  • ELA Language: 4, 6
  • HSS Reading: 1-2 4, 7-10
CONTINUE THIS LESSON

Proceed to Handout 3 or Handout 4

OR complete the lesson now with one of our Student Activity Options

LESSON 1 STUDENT ACTIVITY OPTIONS

Extended Learning

  • Assign the full texts of Sontag’s essays “Against Interpretation,” “On Style,” and/or “The Aesthetics of Silence” from her collections Against Interpretation and Styles of Radical Will in advance.
  • Reflection and concluding questions may also be assigned as short essays or response papers.