Susan Sontag and The Californians
Sontag considers Camp a sensibility reveling in the unnatural and the theatrical, rather than the natural and the sincere. The concepts of exaggeration, stylization, and… Read More »Susan Sontag and The Californians
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.
Look What You’ve Done to My Peonies!
What’s more camp than dodging the Vietnam draft? 1969’s The Gay Deceivers dares to ask this very question, and its answer leaves little room for… Read More »Look What You’ve Done to My Peonies!
Camp: Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers
According to Susan Sontag: “In naïve, or pure, Camp, the essential element is seriousness, a seriousness that fails. Of course, not all seriousness that fails… Read More »Camp: Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers
Neil Breen: The Accidental King of Camp (Caroline Scott)
Susan Sontag’s essay Notes on Camp describes some of the characteristics which designate a piece of art as camp. It needs to be overambitious, exaggerated,… Read More »Neil Breen: The Accidental King of Camp (Caroline Scott)
Camp in Velvet Goldmine
The film, Velvet Goldmine, is Camp in the Sontagian sense. This film is meant to depict the life of a David Bowie adjacent character. Despite… Read More »Camp in Velvet Goldmine
“What you see isn’t always the truth”: The Camp Sensibilities of Drag
Every definition of pure, or naïve camp tells a different story of a failed seriousness—a sincere intention to be perceived as high-art, which is ironically… Read More »“What you see isn’t always the truth”: The Camp Sensibilities of Drag
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