Notes on Camp

I can’t think of a piece of writing that does this more effectively than Susan Sontag’s “Notes on ‘Camp.’” In her words, “a sensibility is one of the hardest things to talk about... To snare a sensibility in words, especially one that is alive and powerful, one must be tentative and nimble. The form of jottings, rather than an essay (with its claim... See more

- Since it entered the English language in the late 19th Century, the term has been subject to various interpretations, and there still doesn’t seem be a consensus. - Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay Notes on Camp is the inspiration for the 2019 Metropolitan Museum of Art gala and accompanying exhibition. In it, the late writer and filmmaker wrote: “To sn... See more

- Camp may be easier to identify than to define. Sontag's definition begins, "Camp is a certain mode of aestheticism. It is one way of seeing the world as an aesthetic phenomenon." - “the essence of camp”: an embrace of all things exaggerated, artificial, and over-the-top. - Merriam-Webster’s definition is “something so outrageously artificial, aff... See more

- In 1964, Susan Sontag defined camp as an aesthetic “sensibility” that is plain to see but hard for most of us to explain: an intentional over-the-top-ness, a slightly (or extremely) “off” quality, bad taste as a vehicle for good art. - Camp is artificial, passionate, serious, Sontag writes. Camp is Art Noveau objects, Greta Garbo, Warner Brothers... See more

The Politics and Poetics of Camp is a radical reappraisal of the meaning and discourse of camp. The contributors look at both the meaning and the uses of camp performance, and ask: is camp a style, or a witty but nonetheless powerful cultural critique? The essays investigate camp from its early formations in the seventeenth and eighteenth century t... See more