rhetorics of transgression in U.S. popular culture
- Categories
- Book/Boek
- Creator
- Shugart, Helene A.
- Creator
- Waggoner, Catherine E.
- Publish Year
- 2008
- Shelfmark
- VS 54 2008
- Thesaurus
- camp, gender, seksualiteit, homoseksualiteit, politiek, vrouwelijkheid, populaire cultuur, Verenigde Staten
- Description
- This book examines the rhetoric and conventions of 'camp' in contemporary popular culture and the ways it both subverts and is co-opted by mainstream ideology and discourse, especially as it pertains to issues of gender and sexuality.Camp has long been aligned with gay male culture and performance. Shugart and Waggoner contend that camp in the popular media - whether visual, dramatic, or musical - is equally pervasive. While aesthetic and performative in nature, the authors argue that camp - female camp in particular - is also highly political and that conventions of femininity and female sexuality are negotiated, if not always resisted, in female camp performances.The authors draw on a wide range of references and figures representative of camp, both historical and contemporary, in presenting the evolution of female camp and its negotiation of gender, political, and identity issues. Antecedents such as Joan Crawford, Wonder Woman, Marilyn Monroe, and Pam Grier are discussed as archetypes for contemporary popular culture figures - Macy Gray, Gwen Stefani, and the characters of Xena from Xena: Warrior Princess and Karen Walker from Will and Grace.