[Commlist] CFP: Camp/camp: the collision of style and biopolitics

Camp/camp: the collision of style and biopolitics

“The more we study art, the less we care for nature.” Oscar Wilde

The Department of Comparative Literature, Hispanic Studies, and The 
Centre for the Study of Theory and Criticism at Western University 
invite abstracts for the 22^nd annual Graduate Student Conference on 
“Camp/camp,” which will be taking place March 26-28, 2020. Our 
conference this year will feature Dr. Allan Pero as our internal keynote 
speaker. His research focuses on the history and philosophy of Camp in 
modernity.

  The ambiguous nature of ‘camp’ means that it summons different 
meanings dependent on one’s frame of reference. Camp as sensibility is 
described by Susan Sontag as using artifice and exaggeration to “convert 
the serious into the frivolous—these are grave matters” (1). A grave 
matter, indeed, when we consider the implications of covering over 
matters of biopolitics and totalitarianism with the study of aesthetics. 
Thus, to contrast the study of camp with the study of the camp, as 
exemplified by the work of Giorgio Agamben, is to reveal the intimate 
relationship between aesthetics and biopolitics. Following Agamben, we 
contend that the body is reduced to ‘bare life’ in the camp, “the space 
that is opened up when the state of exception begins to become the rule” 
(Agamben 168). Today, camp as sensibility and camp as the biopolitical 
are both ingrained in our current cultural moment as an aesthetics of 
distraction: we watch the MET Gala, binge /RuPaul’s Drag Race /and 
/Queer Eye/, and obsess over Lady Gaga and Barbra Streisand; at the same 
time children are locked in cages by ICE, we debate the refugee crisis, 
and conflict continues in places like Hong Kong, Catalonia, and the 
Middle East, as captured by Marjane Satrapi’s graphic 
autobiography,/Persepolis /(2000).

Although a definition of camp as an aesthetic mode often seems elusive, 
it is something which is found almost everywhere in our contemporary 
culture. Moreover, the contrast of the camp as a philosophical concept 
widens the scope of the culture of camp and brings together the 
intersection of the serious with the frivolous in ways that expose the 
binary. Camp exposes the dichotomies of art/kitsch and natural/artifice. 
This can take the form of examining literature, such as the 
carnivalesque-grotesque in Medieval, Early Modern, and Enlightenment 
literatures, for example Rabelais’ /Gargantua and Pantagruel /which 
makes use of scatological imagery in relation to the body politic. Many 
genres of literature employ biopolitical elements, especially science 
fiction, horror, speculative fiction, and trauma literature. In fact, 
Holocaust literature has itself become its own category, ranging from 
autobiographical works, such as Primo Levi’s /If This is a Man /(1947), 
Art Spiegelman’s /Maus I & II/ (1980), and /The Diary of Anne Frank 
/(1947), to novels like /The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas /(2006).

Indigenous Canadian art and literature often combine these concepts with 
the biopolitical, such as in the art and performance of Cree artist Kent 
Monkman and his alter-ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, whose work 
juxtaposes trauma with queer aesthetic performances interrupting idyllic 
vistas of Canada. The contrast between kitsch and camp also emerges in 
the literary works of Indigenous authors such as Sherman Alexie, Thomas 
King, Tomson Highway, and Joshua Whitehead, whose novels and poetry 
impress on the reader the importance of rebelling against the colonial 
body politic. On the other hand, distinct Canadian landmarks have also 
been tainted by a camp sensibility, as seen in Henry Hathaway’s /Niagara 
/(1953) starring Marilyn Monroe.

Camp is also sensed through the work of many filmmakers, such as in 
Pedro Almodóvar’s signature style, where camp meets high art and has 
been popular from the 1960s through to the present. Other Hollywood 
films and Broadway productions have long embraced camp sensibility in 
many classic films such as /Barbarella/ (1968), /Valley of the Dolls/ 
(1967), /The Rocky Horror Picture Show/ (1975), and /Billy Elliot/ 
(2000). Many of these classics also embrace the tyrannical nature of 
biopolitics that deal with issues in sexuality, disease, abortion, 
mental illness, and drug use.

We look to bridge an abundance of disconnections between culture and 
politics through conversations on the polysemic nature of camp. We 
invite papers in all fields of the Arts & Humanities, which include, but 
not limited to Comparative Literature, Hispanic Studies, Theory & 
Criticism, Philosophy, Women’s Studies and Feminist Research, Queer 
Studies, Film Studies, Geography, Theology, Media Studies, Theatre 
Studies, History, Indigenous Studies, Music, Classical Studies, Visual 
Arts, and Postcolonial Studies.

Possible topics:

-Biopolitics (the work of Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, Robert 
Esposito, etc.)

-Colonialism/post-colonialism (trauma, reconciliation, notions of identity)

-Migration and mobility (politics, ethical issues, the lived reality of 
being a refugee)

-Aesthetics (camp, kitsch), WJT Mitchell’s pictures, Jeff Koons’ 
installations

-Literature (genres such as horror, erotica, pulp fiction, romance 
novels, etc.)

-Telenovelas (Thalía; /María, la del barrio;/ /Betty, la fea, /and 
American satires /Ugly Betty/ and /Jane the Virgin/)

-Geography (‘land back’ movement, Canadian reservation system, 
geopolitics of the North)

-Decadence

-Camp Icons (Bette Davis, Judy Garland, Tallulah Bankhead, Eartha Kitt, 
Cher, etc.)

-Queer Studies: /RuPaul’s Drag Race/ and homonationalism, drag queen 
storytelling

-Feminist studies (feminist embodiment, drag-kings, butch-femme aesthetic)

-Girl power and camp (/Wonder Woman/, Spice Girls,/Glow/)

-Camp and capitalism

-Phenomenology of Camp through queer aesthetic 
experiences/performances/artworks.

-Black Camp (/Paris is Burning/, Michael Jackson, and Prince)

-Indigenous Camp (Kent Monkman, Adrian Stimson, Sherman Alexie, Joshua 
Whitehead)

-Education and teaching pedagogy

-Pantomime

-Children’s television and Camp

-Canadian and/or American Politics e.g., “Sassy Trump,” the Cold War and 
its aftermaths

-Apocalyptic literature/creation stories, dystopian narratives

-Directional nature of camp – revealing or concealing

-Cult films – examples – /Addams Family/, /Hocus Pocus, Pink Flamingos, 
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, Showgirls/

-Film/theatre adaptations – examples – /Billy Elliot, The Rocky Horror 
Picture Show, Little Shop of Horrors, Cabaret/

-Auteur Cinema and Camp (Quentin Tarantino, Pedro Almodóvar, Rainer 
Werner Fassbinder)

-Eurovision: camp and nationalism

-Dandyism

-Camp and “the awful”

-Nostalgia in popular culture (comic books, television, movies: /Flash 
Gordon/, /Masters of the Universe, Batman, /etc.)

-Video games and camp (adaptations, superheroes and supervillains, etc.)

Formal papers should be designed to be delivered in no more than 20 
minutes. Please send ~300 word abstracts, along with a 50 word 
biography, to *(gradconference2020 /at/ gmail.com)* by *January 7, 2020*. The 
abstracts should also include the following information: Presenter’s 
short biography (50 words), affiliation (Department and University), a 
presentation title, and an indication of any special media or other 
requirements.

Conference queries should be sent to (gradconference2020 /at/ gmail.com). 
Please also visit gradconference2020.home.blog 
<https://wp.me/PbpLX3-4>for more information and updates, or follow us 
on twitter @camp_uwo <https://twitter.com/camp_uwo>


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