Un léxico de orígenes esenciales
"Il n’y a pas de hors-texte" — No hay nada fuera del texto (Jacques Derrida, 1970).
La afirmación de Derrida de que "no hay nada fuera del texto" desafía la noción convencional de que el lenguaje simplemente refleja la realidad. En cambio, sostiene que nuestra percepción del mundo está inextricablemente mediada a través del lenguaje, que no solo moldea, sino que construye activamente nuestra comprensión. No existe un acceso directo e inmaculado a la verdad o la realidad; cada concepto que comprendemos está tejido en la compleja red de significados que el propio lenguaje crea. Así, el lenguaje no es simplemente una herramienta de comunicación, sino el propio marco a través del cual llegamos a interpretar y relacionarnos con el mundo.
En consonancia con esta visión, y en celebración de nuestra ultima editorial, presentamos Un léxico de orígenes esenciales—una exploración cuidadosamente seleccionada de las raíces de las palabras que encontramos a diario. Esta recopilación invita a una comprensión más profunda de sus significados originales y su evolución a lo largo del tiempo, arrojando luz sobre las estructuras complejas que forman la base de nuestra experiencia.
A Lexicon of Essential Origins
"Il n’y a pas de hors-texte" — There is nothing outside the text (Jaques Derrida, 1970).
Derrida’s assertion that "there is nothing outside of the text" disrupts the conventional notion that language merely reflects reality. Rather, he contends that our perception of the world is inextricably mediated through language, which not only shapes but actively constructs our understanding. There is no direct, unfiltered access to truth or reality; every concept we grasp is woven through the intricate web of meaning that language itself creates. Thus, language is not merely a tool of communication, but the very framework through which we come to interpret and engage with the world.
In keeping with this insight, and in celebration of this year's editorial, we present A Lexicon of Essential Origins—a carefully curated exploration into the roots of the words we encounter daily. This collection invites a deeper understanding of their original meanings and their evolution over time, shedding light on the intricate ways in which language forms the foundation of our experience.
"1"
CAMP
The Glasgow Dictionary of Modernism and Gender
Originating from the French phrase "se camper," signifying performing an exaggerated pose, the term "camp" denotes an aesthetic style and sensibility that embraces all that is marked by exaggeration and imbued with an ironic value. Most frequently used in reference to queer experience and mode of expression. The term camp first appeared in relation to aestheticism in 1909, as part of a "homosexual slang" derived from Polari, a "secret language" developed and employed by queer individuals in Britain during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Baker, 2002: 1-5). Polari was a distinct form of slang that combined elements of Italianate vocabulary, rhyming slang, and Romani expressions, of which the primary function was to provide a veil of secrecy, protecting queer people from potential hostility and discrimination from those outside the subculture (ibid).
The term camp, as it pertains to the realm of aesthetics and sensibility however, did not find its way into print until 1954, in Christopher Isherwood's novel, The World in the Evening (Isherwood, 2012[1954]). In the novel, two characters engage in a discussion in which they deliberate upon the distinctions between “Low Camp” and “High Camp” (ibid: 174). The former is described by the characters as a less refined and self-aware manifestation of camp, while the latter is distinguished by its deliberate and extravagant exhibition of hyperbolic emotions, aesthetics, and behaviour. Furthermore, within the course of their dialogue, the characters proceed to delve into the essence of camp, introducing the three principal facets through which camp operates. The first is articulated by the novel's central character, Stephen Monk, who underscores that "one can't camp about something you don't take seriously. You're not making fun of it; you're making fun out of it” (ibid: 180). This statement emphasises the notion that camp is not rooted in mockery; rather, it is a means of celebrating the unconventional and those elements that diverge from the ordinary. Secondly, during their conversation, Monk describes camp as "fun, artifice, and elegance," terms that reflect and forefront camp's celebratory embrace of the artificial, seemingly combining elements of playfulness and sophistication (ibid: 181). Thirdly, Monk concludes his discourse by asserting, "Camp is the love of the exaggerated, the 'off,' of things being what they are not," thereby reaffirming camp's foundation in the acceptance and admiration of the unconventional (ibid). These three components, as defined by Isherwood, later evolved into the fundamental principles of camp: a serious, elegant, yet playful and self-aware embrace of the unconventional.
Susan Sontag subsequently developed the concepts put forth by Isherwood in her influential 1964 essay Notes on Camp, a seminal text in the camp discourse (Sontag, 2018 [1964]). The essence of camp, as articulated by Sontag, resides in an esoteric manifestation of aestheticism that provides a unique perspective on the world, "something of a private code, a badge of identity even, among small urban cliques” (ibid: 1). In doing so, camp assumes attributes of drama, extravagance, playfulness, and the concept of "being-as-playing-a-role," promoting it with a performative dimension (ibid: 4). Nonetheless, Sontag asserts that camp, while performative, maintains an unshakable earnestness and naivety at its core, as she contends, "Camp which knows itself to be Camp is usually less satisfying" (ibid: 2). This perspective establishes Campiness as a quality that cannot intentionally exist, especially within the boundaries of mainstream culture. However, despite Sontag's deliberate separation from mainstream culture in her definition of camp, she overlooks a key feature of it: its inherent association with queerness.
Moe Meyer criticises Sontag's approach in his book The Politics and Poetics of Camp, accusing her of "removing, or at least minimising, the connotations of homosexuality" from camp and establishing camp as "strategies and tactics of queer parody" (Meyer, 1993: 6). Meyer thus proposes an alternative definition of camp, one that goes beyond "style" or "sensibility." According to Meyer, camp is a complex expression of identity that is "embodied in the signifying practices that processually constitute queer identities as a suppressed and denied oppositional critique"(ibid: 8). As a result the exorbitance, extravagance, and deviancy inherent in camp aesthetics constitute a demand on the foundation of the status quo, disputing what heterosexual household culture has rendered acceptable. Camp operates as a mechanism for deconstructing the façade of stability, normality, and standardization. Camp therefore, assumes an inherently political character, presenting the total body of performative practices and strategies used to enact a queer identity, with enactment defined as the production of social visibility and cultural critique (ibid: 6). Consequently, as it assumes an exclusive association with queerness, it redefines activities previously classified as camp by Sontag but lacking alignment with queer identity as examples of queer praxis appropriation. Meyer asserts that such non-queer appropriations frequently attempt to interpret camp through the lens of "compulsory reproductive heterosexuality" and thus cannot be understood as camp (ibid: 8).
Elements of camp aesthetics and sensibility can be observed in Modernist literature, exemplified in the literary works of Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf, and Jean Genet, and their disruption of normativity. These authors, by employing the elements of exaggeration and irony that are inherent in camp aesthetics, methodically navigate the complexities of everyday life. Through this process, they systematically interrogate and deconstruct the societal conventions to which individuals are frequently compelled to conform. In The Importance of Being Earnest (2008[1895]), Oscar Wilde presents a satirical reflection of the upper echelons of Victorian society. In doing so, he uses satirical banter uttered by flamboyant characters in order to highlight the superficiality of society, whilst maintaining an element of seriousness through its self-aware artificiality. Likewise, Virginia Woolf's Orlando (2006[1928]) scrutinizes the concept of gender through its whimsical and theatrical narrative style, in conjunction with its exploration of temporal dimensions and aesthetics. This underscores the perforative element within gender and the way it is constructed. Hence, these literary works subvert the superficial constructs of normativity by embracing elements that are inherently extravagant and excessive, the camp.
Bibliography
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Baker, Paul. (2002) Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang (London: Bloombury)
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Genet, Jean. (1994[1943]) Our Lady of the Flowers (New York: Grove Atlantic)
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Isherwood, Christopher. (2012 [1954]) The World in the Evening (London: Random House)
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Meyer, Moe. (1993) The Politics and Poetics of Camp (London & New York: Routledge)
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Sontag, Susan. (2018 [1964]) Notes on “Camp” (London: Random House)
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Wilde, Oscar. (2008[1895]) The Importance of Being Ernest (London: L.Smithers and Company)
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Woolf, Virginia. (2006[1928]) Orlando (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)