Camp

Camp: Queer Aesthetics and the Performing Subject addresses the multi-layered issue of camp, whose inexhaustible breadth of reference and theoretical relevance to the issues taken up by academic research in recent years have made it one of the most salient and challenging issues on the contemporary critical stage. Reassessing the role and significance of the finest essays on camp written by leading intellectuals in cultural studies, lesbian and gay studies, and queer theory, this critical anthology simultaneously 'queers' camp as an issue and offers an excellent key to rethinking the history, theory and practice of camp. The anthology is divided into five thematic/historical sections: Tasting It; Flaunting the Closet; Gender, and Other Spectacles; Pop Camp, Surplus Counter-Value, or the Camp of Cultural Economy; and The Queer Issue. These essay clusters help the reader situate the critical debates around the subject. A comprehensive bibliography of items from the earliest use of the word 'camp' to the present completes this unique and exciting volume.* The only comprehensive reader on camp to date* Gathers the best and historically most significant essays on the subject* Arranges the essays in thematic/historical sections for ease of use* A long Introduction provides a challenging rethinking of camp, and a historical/theoretical framework for research on the subject* The first definitive bibliography on camp

Dr Fabio Cleto teaches English Literature at the University of Bergamo in Italy. He has published on biography and authorship, on turn of the century literary writing, on cultural materialism and queer theory, and on the theory and history of camp.