The term camp—normally used as an adjective, even though earliest recorded uses employed it mainly as a verb—refers to the deliberate and sophisticated use of kitsch, mawkish or corny themes and styles in art, clothing or conversation. A part of the anti-academic defense of popular culture in the sixties, camp came to academic prominence in the eighties with the widespread adoption of the Postmodern views on art and culture. Today, camp falls into two distinct categories: intentional camp and unintentional camp. Inte ...

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• Camp style - Origins and development
• Camp style - Academic appropriation or proliferation of camp
• Camp style - Examples of Camp
• Camp style - Source

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The OED gives 1909 as the first citation of "camp" in print, with the sense of "ostentatious, exaggerated, affected, theatrical; effeminate or homosexual; pertaining to or characteristic of homosexuals. So as n., ‘camp’ behaviour, mannerisms, etc. (see quot. 1909); a man exhibiting such behaviour." According to the OED, this sense of the word is "etymologically obscure." Though the rise of Postmodernism has made camp a common take on aesthetics, not identified with any specific group , the attitude was originally a distinctive fac ...

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Camp style, Camp style - Origins and development, Camp style - Academic appropriation or proliferation of camp, Camp style - Examples of Camp, Camp style - Source

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Camp is best explained to those unfamiliar with the concept of camp through the use of examples. Television shows such as The Brady Bunch, Leave It to Beaver, Dragnet, The Lawrence Welk Show, Hee Haw, Sing Along with Mitch, Get Smart,, Laugh-In, Gilligan's Island, Batman, The Love Boat, Saved by the Bell, The Monkees, and The Dukes of H ...

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Camp style, Camp style - Origins and development, Camp style - Academic appropriation or proliferation of camp, Camp style - Examples of Camp, Camp style - Source

Read more here: » Camp style: Encyclopedia II - Camp style - Examples of Camp

While the success of postmodernism granted camp a place in mainstream art and literature analysis, as well as a certain weight in contemporary social theory, it also meant that its extended sphere of cultural influence was likely to affect the use of the concept. As a part of its adoption by the mainstream, camp has undergone a softening of its original subversive tone, and is often little more than the condescending recognition that popular culture can also be enjoyed by a sophisticated sensibility. Comic books and Westerns, for example, ha ...

See also:

Camp style, Camp style - Origins and development, Camp style - Academic appropriation or proliferation of camp, Camp style - Examples of Camp, Camp style - Source

Read more here: » Camp style: Encyclopedia II - Camp style - Academic appropriation or proliferation of camp