Reading List · Lisanne Swart
Authors Like
By Lisanne Swart · 6 authors · Essays & Cultural Criticism · Updated July 2026
Susan Sontag treated the essay as a form serious enough to hold real intellectual weight, thinking rigorously and often unfashionably about photography, illness, camp, and the ethics of witnessing atrocity. Her prose is exacting and refuses the reader easy comfort — she'd rather leave you unsettled with a genuinely difficult question than offer a tidy resolution. The writers below share that same essayistic seriousness and willingness to sit with complexity rather than simplify it for an audience.
Readers who enjoy Susan Sontag often turn to Hannah Arendt for the political-philosophical rigor running in a parallel tradition, Rebecca Solnit for a warmer, more personal version of the same essayistic seriousness, Joan Didion for a sparer, more detached prose style applied to American culture, Iris Murdoch for philosophical seriousness carried by fiction rather than essay, Maria Popova for wide-ranging cultural curation in a similar intellectual spirit, and James Baldwin for moral urgency and precision applied to race and identity in America.
Similar Voice & Approach
Hannah Arendt
Arendt shares Sontag's willingness to think rigorously and unfashionably about difficult subjects, applying that same intellectual seriousness to totalitarianism and political evil that Sontag applied to photography and the ethics of representation. Both refuse to let readers settle for easy moral positions.
Read Arendt for Sontag's rigor and refusal of comfort applied to political philosophy rather than culture directly. Eichmann in Jerusalem is the essential entry point.
→ Read more about Hannah ArendtRebecca Solnit
Solnit brings a warmer, more personally engaged version of Sontag's essayistic seriousness, moving associatively between memoir, politics, and cultural observation rather than Sontag's more austere, argument-driven prose. Both treat the essay as a form capable of carrying genuine intellectual and political weight.
Read Solnit for Sontag's essayistic rigor with more warmth and personal presence woven through. Men Explain Things to Me is the essential entry point.
→ Read more about Rebecca SolnitJoan Didion
Didion shares Sontag's precision and refusal to soften difficult observation, though her prose is sparer and cooler, using closely observed personal detail as a lens onto larger American cultural currents rather than Sontag's more directly theoretical approach.
Read Didion for a cooler, more narratively driven version of Sontag's precision applied to American culture. Slouching Towards Bethlehem is the classic starting point.
Iris Murdoch
Murdoch shares Sontag's seriousness and philosophical training, though she chose to work most of her ideas out through fiction rather than direct essay, populating novels with characters whose self-deceptions carry real moral weight rather than arguing points abstractly.
Read Murdoch for Sontag's intellectual seriousness carried by fiction rather than essay. The Sovereignty of Good is the more directly philosophical entry point.
→ Read more about Iris MurdochMaria Popova
Popova shares Sontag's wide-ranging curiosity across science, art, and philosophy, building arguments through accumulation and connection between disparate figures and ideas rather than linear exposition, in a spirit close to Sontag's own eclectic intellectual range.
Read Popova for Sontag's range and curatorial intelligence applied to the history of ideas and creative figures. Figuring is the essential book-length entry point.
→ Read more about Maria PopovaJames Baldwin
Baldwin shares Sontag's precision and refusal to simplify, applying that same moral seriousness to race and identity in America. Both writers insist that difficult truths deserve unflinching attention rather than comfortable evasion, even when that makes for harder reading.
Read Baldwin for Sontag's rigor and moral urgency applied to a different, equally uncomfortable subject. The Fire Next Time is the essential entry point.
→ Read more about James BaldwinMore from the shelf
Frequently asked questions about authors like Susan Sontag
Who should I read if I like Susan Sontag?
Readers who enjoy Susan Sontag often turn to Hannah Arendt for the political-philosophical rigor running in a parallel tradition, Rebecca Solnit for a warmer, more personal version of the same essayistic seriousness, Joan Didion for a sparer, more detached prose style applied to American culture, Iris Murdoch for philosophical seriousness carried by fiction rather than essay, Maria Popova for wide-ranging cultural curation in a similar intellectual spirit, and James Baldwin for moral urgency and precision applied to race and identity in America.
Is Rebecca Solnit similar to Susan Sontag?
Both treat the essay as a form capable of carrying real intellectual and political weight, though Solnit's prose is warmer and more personally engaged, moving associatively between memoir, politics, and cultural observation, where Sontag's is more austere and argument-driven. Both refuse to simplify difficult ideas for the comfort of readers.
What should I read after Susan Sontag?
Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem applies similar intellectual rigor to political philosophy. Rebecca Solnit's Men Explain Things to Me offers a warmer, more personal version of the same essayistic seriousness. For a sparer, more narratively driven prose style applied to American culture, Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem is essential.
Is Iris Murdoch similar to Susan Sontag?
Both share seriousness and philosophical training, though Murdoch chose to work most of her ideas out through fiction rather than direct essay, populating novels with characters whose self-deceptions carry real moral weight. Sontag worked primarily as an essayist and cultural critic, applying similar rigor directly to photography, illness, and representation.
