Saturday, September 12, 2015

Random Musings and a Case Study: Susan Sontag's Camp

In 1964, Susan Sontag published “Notes on ‘Camp’”, considered the first attempt to discuss Camp in writing. Sontag labels Camp as a sensibility, “distinct from an idea” (para. 2), she notes, in that “any sensibility which can be crammed into the mold of a system, or handled with the rough tools of proof, is no longer a sensibility at all. It has hardened into an idea” (para. 4). As such, she remains skeptical in applying concrete conclusions and definitions to Camp, choosing to forgo a formal essay in favor of a series of notes. In these notes, Sontag describes Camp as above all else the “love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration” (para. 2), then proceeding to elaborate on the ways in which Camp manifests, operates, and differs from similar concepts.

“Notes on ‘Camp’” remains influential for Sontag’s adept understanding of how Camp compiles itself from cultural objects as a “logic of taste” (para. 4). In this article, I want to begin to examine Sontag’s notes and try to present Camp’s usefulness in the context of themed entertainment. To do so, I will be looking specifically at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, where the broad themed focus on the movie industry is construed through a lens of abstraction that, I argue, is Campy in accordance with Sontag’s theory. From this case study, I hope to illuminate ways in which the harnessing of Camp serves as a powerful attracting force for the general public.