How to Pursue Self-Identity? Interflow between Self Pursuit and Collective Mentality —Studies on Self Writing in I’ etcetera and Analysis on Susan Sontag’s View of Public Intellectual
I’ etcetera is the only short novel collection created by Sontag during her
whole writing journey. Concerning the process of its coming into being, it is like relax
“between the acts” while creating and criticizing. According to herself, it is “a series of
adventure with first person”. All walks of critics give this collection positive criticism,
which leaves deep impressions on her conversant use of languages and her unexpected
recognition of her American roots,and believe it is a work blending lyricism and
Americanness, while fails to pay full attention to her self writing in the creating
of prose short novel and her narration of the generation of collective mentality of
American public intellectuals after Second World War behind her self writing. This
paper takes advantage of American famous semiologist Norbert Wiley’s theory of
Semiotic Self to interpret her introspection on and backwash of problems of dialogism,
uniformity, social organizational reduction and cultural reduction of self and at the
same time reveals her creational experiences of fusing critical gifts into novel forms.
This paper aims to firstly explore what informs Susan Sontag’s pursuit of self writing and public territory of self is a spiritual clue of both self and knowledge atmosphere
of community which is called Gnosticism and its influences on both her thinking and
writing.