Representing Camp: Constructing Macaroni Masculinity in Eighteenth-Century Visual Satire

Abstract

This article asks how ‘Camp,’ as defined in Sontag’s 1964 essay, ‘Notes on Camp,’ might provide a valuable framework for the analysis of late eighteenth-century satirical prints, specifically those featuring images of the so-called ‘macaroni.’ Discussing a number of satirical prints and contemporary writings on the macaroni, the article reads them against Sontag’s text in order to establish its utility as a critical framework for understanding the images’ complex relationship of content, form, and function.

Keywords

• camp
• macaroni
• satire
• print culture
• eighteenth-century
• masculinity