Please remember to avoid footnotes and to include an
alphabetical list of 'References' which have been cited in the text
(not a Bibliography of anything you have read for the essay). This list should include
author's names, date, book titles (in italics), place of publication and publisher.
Within the text always cite author's surname, date and page number. Double-space your
text and number your pages.
Guidance for this assignment: Try not to tie yourself up in knots defining 'camp':
choose an existing definition which highlights a few salient features and focus on these.
Is camp an exclusively gay phenomenon? Stereotyping (a key form
of reality construction) is clearly an important concept here (the reductive
equation of 'camp' with 'gay', which needs some explanation in
relation to what I called the gender myth (lecture 1).
Consider how this issue relates to an 'essentialist' notion of
gay or lesbian identities - for which you need to consult some introductions
to 'queer theory'. Anchor your text in extended discussions of particular
examples in the mass media.
Note also that this is an assignment for which the
inclusion of relevant pictorial illustrations may be useful.
Use these to illustrate particular points. Contrasting
one with another can also be productive.
Incorporate illustrations electronically into your text (e.g. by
scanning or downloading from the Internet) rather than literally cutting and pasting.
For guidance on capturing stills, click here.
Some suggested reading
- Babuscio, Jack (1978) 'The Cinema of Camp, aka Camp and the Gay Sensibility'
In Fabio Cleto (Ed) (1999)
Camp: Queer Aesthetics and the Performing Subject. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 117-135
- Bergling, Tim (2001)
Sissyphobia: Gay Men and Effeminate Behavior. New York: Harrington Park Press
- Bergman, David (1994)
Camp Grounds: Style and Homosexuality. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press
- Booth, Mark (1983) 'Campe-Toi! On the Origins and Definitions of Camp',
in Fabio Cleto (Ed) (1999)
Camp: Queer Aesthetics and the Performing Subject. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 66-79
- Booth, Mark (1983)
Camp. London: Quartet
- Bourne, Stephen (1996)
Brief Encounters: Lesbians and Gays in British Cinema 1930-1971.
London: Cassell
- Cleto, Fabio (Ed) (1999)
Camp: Queer Aesthetics and the Performing Subject. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
- Clum, John M. (2002)
He's All Man: Learning Masculinity, Gayness, and Love from American Movies.
London: Palgrave
- Cohan, Steven (2005)
Incongruous Entertainment: Camp, Cultural Value, and the MGM Musical. Durham, NC: Duke University Press
- Cohan, Steven & Ina Rae Hark (Eds.) (1993)
Screening the Male. London: Routledge
- Cole, Shaun (2000)
'Don We Now Our Gay Apparel': Gay Men's Dress in the Twentieth Century.
Oxford: Berg
- Core, Philip (1984)
Camp: The Lie That Tells The Truth. London: Plexus
- Craig, Steve (Ed.) (1992)
Men, Masculinity and the Media. Newbury Park, CA: Sage
- Dixon, Wheeler Winston (2003)
Straight: Constructions of Heterosexuality in the Cinema.
(Suny Series, Cultural Studies in Cinema/Video). New York: State University of New York Press
- Dyer, Richard (Ed.) (1977)
Gays and Film. London: British Film Institute
[recommended]
- Dyer, Richard (1990)
Now You See It: Studies on Lesbian and Gay Film.
London: Routledge [recommended]
- Dyer, Richard (1993)
The Matter of Images: Essays on Representation.
London: Routledge [recommended]
- Greenberg, David F. (1988)
The Construction of Homosexuality. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press
- Isherwood, Christopher (1954/1999)
The World in the Evening.;
also in Fabio Cleto (Ed) (1999)
Camp: Queer Aesthetics and the Performing Subject. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 49-52
- Mellen, Joan (1978)
Big Bad Wolves: Masculinity in the American Film.
London: Elm Tree
- Meyer, Moe (1994)
The Politics and Poetics of Camp. London: Routledge
- Munday, Rod (2005)
'The Role of Contemporary Cinema in Maintaining Heteronormativity'
[WWW document] URL
http://users.aber.ac.uk/dgc/media/Students/ram0210/ram0210.html (student essay)
- Murray, Raymond (1998)
Images in the Dark: An Encyclopedia of Gay and Lesbian Film and Video. London: Titan
- Reuter, Donald F. (2004)
Fabulous: A Loving, Luscious and Lighthearted Look at Film from the Gay Perspective. New York: Broadway Books
- Reynolds, Robert (2002)
From Camp to Queer: Remaking the Australian Homosexual. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press
- Richardson, Diane (1996) 'Heterosexuality and Social Theory'. In Diane Richardson (Ed)
Theorizing Heterosexuality: Telling it Straight. Buckingham: Open University Press, pp. 1-20
- Robertson, Pamela (1996)
Guilty Pleasures: Feminist Camp from Mae West to Madonna. London: Tauris
- Roen, Paul (1994)
High Camp: A Gay Guide to Camp and Cult Films. San Francisco, CA: Leyland
- Russo, Vito (1987)
The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies.
New York: HarperCollins
- Sontag, Susan (1964) Notes on Camp. In Susan Sontag (1966/1994)
Against Interpretation. New York: Vintage;
also In Fabio Cleto (Ed) (1999)
Camp: Queer Aesthetics and the Performing Subject. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 53-65;
available online [WWW document] URL
http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/Sontag-NotesOnCamp-1964.html
- Steinberg, Deborah Lynn, Debbie Epstein & Richard Johnson (Eds) (1997)
Border Patrols: Policing the Boundaries of Heterosexuality. London: Cassell
- Streitmatter, Rodger (2009)
From 'Perverts' to 'Fab Five': The Media's Changing Depiction of Gay Men and Lesbians.
London: Routledge
- Tinkcom, Matthew (2002)
Working Like a Homosexual: Camp, Capital, Cinema. Durham, NC: Duke University Press
Note: Treat with extreme caution sources labelled with this symbol!