Author(s)

Susan Sontag: an American writer, philosopher and political activist. She was one of the most influential critics of her generation, known for her work on photography, illness and aesthetic theory.

Research Location/Institution

Country

United States

Date

1964

Writing Style

Essay Like

Publication

Partisan Review

Context

• She argues that Camp is a way of seeing the world as an aesthetic phenomenon, not in terms of beauty but in terms of the degree of artifice and stylization.
• Camp is characterized by an extraordinary love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration.
• The essay distinguishes between Pure Camp (unintentional, naive seriousness that fails) and Camp that knows it is Camp (intentional and usually less satisfying).
• favoring style over content and aesthetics over morality.
• It is famously dedicated to Oscar Wilde, ****whose wit and aestheticism serve as the foundation for the sensibility.
• Camp suggests that the future doesn't just need to be functional. It can be flamboyant, absurd and deeply stylized, prioritizing the vibe of the future over its actual utility.

Possible Biases

The essay has been critiqued by later scholars (particularly in Queer Studies) for de-politicizing Camp and arguably sanitizing its deep roots in gay culture to make it more palatable for a mainstream intellectual audience.

Terminology

Camp: It’s so bad it’s good.

Sensibility: A mode of enjoyment or a particular flavor of taste that is often pre-reflective or intuitive.

Artifice: Human skill or cleverness as opposed to nature. In Camp, the more unnatural and stylized an object is, the better.

Aestheticism: The prioritizing of aesthetic values over social, political or moral ones.