FAVh031 Camp Phenomenon and Cinema

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2021
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Antonín Tesař (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Šárka Jelínek Gmiterková, Ph.D.
Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Supplier department: Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
each even Thursday 12:00–15:40 C34
Prerequisites
There are none.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
Course objectives
This course introduces the notion of camp, which belongs to major cultural phenomenons of the second half of the 20th century. This rather slippery and evasive term will be grounded and defined through series of key studies, which introduce and define it on the basic level. Although camp is a broadly cultural term, it is also most frequently connected with cinema. Therefore this course will focus on crucial connections between camp and cinema.
Learning outcomes
After completing the course, students will:
- be able to navigate themselves in the camp discourses, including its various uses and contexts
- be familiarised with interconnections between camp and cinema
- be able to use the notion of camp correctly when applied on cinema
Syllabus
  • • Lecture 1 What is camp? The definiton and adjacent issues. The roots of camp. Swish and drag. Analysis of Notes on camp by Susan Sontag. • Lecture 2 Camp as an aesthetic category (part I.) and as a critical stance. Camp objects. Camp and trash cinema. • Lecture 3 Camp and gay sensibility. Analysing Jack Babuscio's essay: Camp and the Gay Sensibility. Cam as a reaction to a social oppression. Camp and underground. • Lecture 4 Camp as an aesthetic category, part II. Camp and (classical) Hollywood. • Lecture 5 New queer cinema and camp. • Lecture 6 Camp present. Death/rebirth of camp. Camp as a mainstream.
Literature
    required literature
  • SONTAGOVÁ, Susan: Poznámky o fenoménu camp. Labyrint 2000, č. 7-8, Praha: Labyrint, s. 79-86.
  • • Meyer, Moe (2010): An Archaeology of Posing: Essays on Camp, Drag and Sexuality. Macater Press.
  • Camp: queer aesthetics and the performing subject : a reader. Edited by Fabio Cleto. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999, xii, 523. ISBN 0748611711. info
    recommended literature
  • Aaron, Michelle (2004): New Queer Cinema: A Critical Reader. Edinburgh, Edinburgh Univeristy Press.
  • Tinkcom, Matthew (2002): Working Like a Homosexual: Camp, Capital, Cinema. Durham: Duke University Press.
  • TESAŘ, Antonín, David ČENĚK, Jiří FLÍGL and Jiří BLAŽEK. Krev, slzy a sperma : čítanka filmového braku. Vydání první. Praha: Casablanca, 2017, 237 stran. ISBN 9788087292396. info
Teaching methods
Six lectures with adjacent topical screenings. Lectures take place on Thursdays (11. 3., 25. 3., 8. 4., 22. 4., 6. 5., 20. 5.) in the screening room C34 or on MS Teams (will be specified in accordance with current epidemiological situation), 12:00-15:50.
Assessment methods
Final written essay. Choose one Czech film and argue, why it deserves to be considered as camp. The definition of camp has to be supported by the academic literature from the list above. The essay should be between 5 and 7 pages long.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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