Camp and Social Commentary in Death Becomes Her
Susan Sontag considers the essence of camp to be its love of the unnatural, of artifice and exaggeration. She also defines camp as a way… Read More »Camp and Social Commentary in Death Becomes Her
Blog Post 7 (due 5 PM Wednesday 19th March)
Week 7 Camp, Irony and So Bad it’s Funny
Required Reading:
Susan Sontag, ‘Notes on Camp,” [1966], Against Interpretation and Other Essays (New York: Picador, 1996), 275-292.
Andrew Ross, “Uses of Camp,” No Respect: Intellectuals and Popular Culture (New York: Routledge, 1989), 135-165, 249-253 (endnotes).
Jack Babuscio, “Camp and the gay sensibility,” Queer Cinema: The Film Reader ed. Harry M Benshoff and Sean Griffin (New York: Routledge, 2004), 121-136.
Down with Love, Up with Camp
2003 saw the release of Down with Love, a quirky romantic comedy starring Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor that parodied 1959’s Pillow Talk. Featuring Rock… Read More »Down with Love, Up with Camp
RuPaul’s Gay Sensibility – Rebeca Ravara
Being able to describe the term ‘camp’ has proved an arduous task for a multitude of scholars. Following Susan Sontag’s seminal essay Notes on Camp, the… Read More »RuPaul’s Gay Sensibility – Rebeca Ravara
Well If it sounds Camp and looks Camp then it’s probably Camp.
In her now iconic essay ‘Notes on Camp’ Susan Sontag explores the sensibility of ‘Camp’ and the ‘affinity and overlap’ between homosexuality and ‘Camp.’ The… Read More »Well If it sounds Camp and looks Camp then it’s probably Camp.
You Better Hold On Tight, Spider Monkey. (Sontag’s Notes on Camp)
“All Camp objects, and persons, contain a large element of artifice. Nothing in nature can be campy …. Rural Camp is still man-made, and most… Read More »You Better Hold On Tight, Spider Monkey. (Sontag’s Notes on Camp)
‘Mrs Coleman’ and camp
Babuscio explains that there are four key features of camp: irony, aestheticism, theatricality and humor. Irony represents “any highly incongruous contrast between an individual or… Read More »‘Mrs Coleman’ and camp
Noughties Camp: Scooby Doo (2002)
According to Susan Sontag, the camp sensibility is a kind of aesthetic attitude that ‘revels’ in artifice, exaggeration and the stylisation of cultural artefacts. I… Read More »Noughties Camp: Scooby Doo (2002)
our camp in front of them…
Ross’ more holistic reading highlights what I think is a really interesting complication in the production and consumption of camp: the confrontation of aristocratic sensibility… Read More »our camp in front of them…
You’re a very famous actor. Or used to be. Now you do dog food commercials. (Susan Sontag and Paddington 2)
In her definitions of Camp, Sontag states that ‘Camp sees everything in quotation marks. It’s not a lamp, but a “lamp”; not a woman, but… Read More »You’re a very famous actor. Or used to be. Now you do dog food commercials. (Susan Sontag and Paddington 2)
The Picture of 26 Sarah Snooks
There is often a misconception that ‘camp’ is something that is so bad its good; a sense of too much, too far, or over the… Read More »The Picture of 26 Sarah Snooks