A One-Day Conference
University of Brighton, Friday 6 September 2019
Camp has enjoyed many definitions throughout decades of academic
discussion and debate. For Susan Sontag it is a ‘sensibility’: ‘the essence of
Camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration’(1964: 515).
For Richard Dyer (1977), as argued in an essay titled ‘It’s being so camp as
keeps us going’, camp is a form of queer resistance, a way of looking at
objects rather than any inherent qualities in those objects themselves. Fabio
Cleto (1999) also sees camp as an unstable, but powerful, progressive critical
tool; while for David Halperin, camp is connected to irony as a strategy of
subversion. ‘Camp,’ Halperinwrites, ‘is a reminder of the artificiality of
emotion, of authenticity as a performance’(2012: 288). In both academic and
popular terms, camp is clearly a quality that evades easy definition.
Throughout its history, camp has performed many countercultural
functions, as a means of articulating alternative self-identification, of
securing group coherence, of challenging dominant conventions, meanings and
power structures. At the same time, camp has been a recognisable component of
broad popular entertainment. Many classic entertainers such as Mae West,
Marilyn Monroe and Liberace embody recognisable aspects of camp performance. In
the UK, camp served as a way of sneaking queer discourses into mainstream
culture, with comedians such as Kenneth Williams, Frankie Howerd and the
programme Round the Horne bringing the gay language of Polari to a BBC
audience. British television of the subsequent era was full of performers like
Larry Grayson, Kenny Everett and John Inman, while later generations grew up
with Julian Clary, Graham Norton and drag-queen-turned-teatime-entertainer Paul
O’Grady. The revival of Mystery Science Theatre 3000, the popularity of
Rupaul’s Drag Race, the critical acclaim surrounding Lady Gaga, suggests that
camp retains a significant role in contemporary culture.
Sontag’s essay ‘Notes on Camp’ was both notorious and controversial on
its publication in 1964 and remains so. Fifty-five years later, and more than
half a century since the decriminalization of homosexuality in England, in an
age of gay marriage, how significant is camp? Do the functions that it once
served remain important to gender and cultural politics? If films from Carry on
Camping to Pulp Fiction can be described as camp, can the term retain its
meaning? When the work of a filmmaker like John Waters becomes repackaged as
mainstream musical theatre, has camp become too commodified? Or do such
questions misunderstand the very complexities and contradictions which make
camp so fascinating?
This conference, to be held at the University of Brighton on Friday 6
September 2016, will investigate camp in both its historical and contemporary
manifestations, and interrogate its relevance today.
We invite panels and papers on topics including, but not restricted to:
- Camp icons: film stars, musicians, writers
- Camp cultures: film, music, theatre, literature, television
- Camp spaces: clubs, bars, theatres, tourist sites, domestic spaces
- Camp fashion
- Camp histories
- Camp practices
- Camp women
- The politics of camp
Deadline for proposals: 1 August 2019
Proposals (300 word abstract and bio) to: Ewan Kirkland –
e.kirkland@brighton.ac.uk
Conference fee: £40/concessions: £20
Lunch and refreshments will be provided
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