Sontag wrote AIDS and Its Metaphors in 1988, in the middle of a crisis whose language still shapes how bodies, illness and blame are described. Wassan Ali hosts a close reading that stays with the text and its afterlife: what Sontag got right, what she missed, and what her method still gives to queer and post-pandemic thinking.
What the essay does
AIDS and Its Metaphors was published in 1988 as a follow-up to Illness as Metaphor. Sontag traced how epidemic language borrows from war, invasion and punishment, and how those metaphors organise who is seen as innocent and who is seen as guilty. The essay was written from inside a crisis. Its questions did not stop when the crisis changed shape.
How the session works
Seminar format. Small group, facilitated in English. Prior reading is welcome but not required. Bring the text or read on site.
Practical info
Free registration through the Schwules Museum. Standard venue rules apply. Part of the accompanying programme for the exhibition Susan Sontag: Seeing and Being Seen at the Schwules Museum.
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