Camp Grounds: Style and Homosexuality

By David Bergman

Book Overview

The concept of camp has never been easy to define. Derived from the French verb camper (to pose) it has been variously interpreted as a style that favours exaggeration, an ironic attitude toward the cultural mainstream and a form of aestheticism that celebrates artifice over beauty. At the same time, camp has been long associated with homosexual culture, or at least with a self-conscious eroticism that questions traditional gender constructions.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870238779
• ISBN13: 9780870238772
• Release Date: December 1993
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.0" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Overview & 16 Essays

"Sixteen essays explore the relationship between style and homosexuality, showing how camp has made its way into every aspect of cultural life: theater, popular music, opera, film, and literature. Beginning with an overview of what camp is, where it came from, and how it operates, the chapters address topics ranging from the 'high camp' of Whitman and Proust to the 'low camp' of drag queen culture and gay fanzines. No index."--© zebraz