Berto_Tony_201307_PhD .pdf - University of Guelph

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3). Babuscio goes further, and claims a kind of gay ownership to the idea; “[t]he term camp
describes those elements in a person, situation, or activity that express, or are created by a
gay sensibility” (Babuscio 20). Moe Meyer gives a broad definition, calling it “queer
parody” but also describes it as a “solely queer discourse” (Meyer 1). Regardless of camp’s
exact relation to gay men, most scholars agree that camp’s origins lie in the social and
historical milieu of gay male culture.
The stylistic codes of camp allow for an alternative, or “inside” perspective: one that
often allows for a gay viewing to consider alternative meanings in a subject or text
(Bergman 13). In rudimentary terms, camp celebrates elements of artifice, irony,
incongruity, and excess in a subject or text. A campy presence may particularly be seen
when these elements appear in or affect normatively gendered codes of appearance and
behaviour. When codings of masculinity and femininity are mixed incongruously in a
single text, normative readings are blurred which allows for a camp reading of the text.
Excess in gendered appearances without mixed gender codings is also a part of camp.
Sontag writes: “[a]llied to the Camp taste for the androgynous is something that seems quite
different but isn't: a relish for the exaggeration of sexual characteristics and personality
mannerisms” (9). In aspects of the production of Beggars, excess, artifice and incongruity
all can create ironic readings; these readings tend to invite a reception of them with a camp
aesthetic.
Morley’s character appears in a costume comprised of black boots, pants, a vest, a
white shirt, a topcoat, an ascot, and finally, a large white handkerchief that rarely leaves his
hand over the course of the play. While his boots and the cut of his vest, shirt, and jacket all
appear to code for a reading of aristocracy and masculinity, certain details offer the