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102 REVAMPING THE GAY SENSIBILITY
the cinematic enunciation of realism, 18 this queer shattering marks a disruption in
the dominant order. But, like the momentary interruption of the “jump cut” in
realist films, the “Camp condition” is only a momentary suspension, a
provisional breach of un-queer logic. Since expression can only occur in
representation, the subsequent articulation of the condition which produces
Camp sutures the queer subject back into the enunciative ties of the dominant
order. Through Camp, the queer subject is reassigned his or her “place.”
As the secondary and discursive response following the queer’s reinscription
into language, the material expression of Camp must accede to the demands,
conditions, and prohibitions of un-queer representation, thus Camp may
sometimes perform the logics of phallogocentric identities and desires. 19
However, Camp participation in such un-queer logics must be understood as part
of a reaction-formation occasioned by homophobia. Indeed, when informed of
its ties to homophobia, Camp discourse may enact interrogations of dominant
representation and thereby provide significant critiques of the un-queer
hegemony.
In conclusion, I would like to propose dyke noir as a form of lesbian Camp
and briefly discuss a representative text.
DYKE NOIR
C.Carr, a theatre critic for the Village Voice, coined the term “dyke noir” in a
review essay on works by playwright Holly Hughes. Carr writes about Hughes’s
development of a “timeless, tasteless world of dyke noir,” featuring the “toughguy
talk, the low-life mood [and] the shady shifty operators” (32) usually
associated with hard-boiled pulpfiction authors James M. Cain, Mickey Spillane,
and Jim Thompson. Unfortunately, by restricting her analysis of dyke noir to
comparisons with dominant cultural forms, Carr obscures, somewhat, dyke
noir’s consideration as a type of lesbian representation. Its echoing of earlier
mass entertainments notwithstanding, dyke noir finds its primary modus operandi
in lesbian subculture. Eschewing the assimilationism often seen in pre-Stonewall
lesbian representation, dyke noir offers no apologies to dominant culture
assumptions and traditions. Instead, through its depictions of street dyke walks
on the wild side, dyke noir interrogates homophobia, navigates the proscription of
lesbian desire, and destabilizes the essentialized ontology of the un-queer as
right, inevitable, and natural. By means of the “dark, obsessive, often deliriously
over-written” language of the 1950s hard-boiled novel (Jenkins 82), dyke noir
renders lesbian ghettos in their 1980s contexts. But all is not so grim as it may
seem; dyke noir is also funny. More to my point, by recognizing its particular
investment in “gallows humor,” dyke noir can be understood as a Camp
discourse.
Although Carr’s description of dyke noir concentrates on Hughes’s plays and
performances, the distinguishing features of dyke noir can be found in other
artists’ works. Sheila McLaughlin’s 1987 film She Must Be Seeing Things and