THEORY AND HISTORY OF LITERARY GENRES

Camp! Spectacular imagination and subversion of dominant genres.

The recent publication of the rich anthology of PopCamp (edited by Fabio Cleto) provides an opportunity to focus on the future of literary and, in a broader sense, artistic genres. The ‘camp’ category, which is mainly linked to gay culture and vocabulary, is central to the interpretation of art and contemporary states as it profoundly permeates romantic novels, melodrama, picaresque fiction and twentieth century cinema. The course will try to tie this disintegrating whirlpool to the two main effects of ‘camp’ in both literature and the arts: the reproduction and dissolution of the literary genre system and the discussion of gender. The contribution of elements of social criticism (Arbasino), of generational influence (Tondelli, Hollinghurst) and of unbridled reworking of reality (Salas, the films of Almodóvar, Haynes, and Ozon) will also be explored.