divaspeak

occupation / innovator as

literary critic

nationality

American

university teacher

journalist

is a form of camp that turns a phrase and reverses it, substituting praise for blame, pride for chagrin, authority for vacillation, salesmanship for silence.

. Wayne Koestenbaum, discussing a form of camp talk that he calls 'Divaspeak', makes the same point in a slightly different way: 'The diva', he explains, 'turns a phrase and reverses it substitutes praise for blame, pride for chagrin, authority for vacillation, salesmanship for silence. I long to imitate this language, if only to inhabit, for a sentence or two, its sublime lack of respect for the truth' (1993: 131, emphasis in original). And Judith Butler expresses all this in more political language, remarking that the effect of camp on 'truth' is to 'deprive. . . hegemonic culture and its critics of the claim to naturalized or essentialized. . . identities' (1990: 138).' (cameron and Kulick 101)

Wayne KoestenbaumThinkers

Wayne Koestenbaum