Terms Used by Postmodernists

HE FOLLOWING TERMS are presented in alphabetical order; however,

someone beginning to learn about these theorists needs to stay conscious of the
fact that each major theorist uses particular terms in his or her particular way. It
is especially important to keep this in mind when it comes to postmodernsim
since critics are diametrically opposed on the issue of whether postmodernism
is positive or negative in its consequences for the human condition. I have
indicated those terms that are particularly tied to an individual theorist, as well
as those terms that are used differently by two different critics. For an introduction to the
work of a few theorists of postmodernism who are currently influencing the discipline,
see the Modules on Postmodernism in this site. Whenever a defined term is used elsewhere
in the Guide to Theory, a hyperlink will eventually (if it does not already) allow you to
review the term in the bottom frame of your browser window. The menu on the left
allows you to check out the available terms without having to scroll through the list
below. Note that the left-hand frame works best in Explorer, Mozilla, and Netscape 4;
you may experience some bugs in Netscape 6 and Opera. (See the Guide to the Guide for
suggestions.) I will also soon provide an alternate menu option; for now, just scroll
down.

Camp:
A sensibility that revels in artifice, stylization, theatricalization, irony, playfulness, and
exaggeration rather than content, as Susan Sontag famously defined the term in her short essay,
"Notes on 'Camp.'" According to Sontag, "Camp sensibility is disengaged, depoliticizedor at
least apolitical"; however, some postmodernists, feminists, and queer theorists have explored
the ways that camp (for example, the drag show) can trouble the belief that gender is "natural"
or inherent, and can therefore work against heteronormativity. As Sontag argues, "Not all
homosexuals have Camp taste. But homosexuals, by and large, constitute the vanguardand
the most articulate audienceof Camp." By exaggerating sexual characteristics and
personality mannerisms, such queer-inflected camp could be said to contend that all behavior is
really performative. Camp is also tied to postmodernism. As Sontag puts it, "Camp sees
everything in quotation marks. It's not a lamp, but a 'lamp'; not a woman, but a 'woman.'" In
this way, the term resembles Linda Hutcheon's very similar understanding of parody, which
Hutcheon offers as one of the major characteristics of postmodern art. (See the Hutcheon
module on parody.) Camp's relationship to kitsch is a close one; camp could be said to be a
self-conscious kitsch. As Sontag writes, "Many examples of Camp are things which, from a
'serious' point of view, are either bad art or kitsch," though she also acknowledges that "some
art which can be approached as Camp... merits the most serious admiration and study." Sontag
also distinguishes between "pure camp," which amounts to a kitsch that takes itself so seriously
that we can now see it as hilarious (in other words, the camp sensibility is on the side of the

audience not the author of the work), and "Camp which knows itself to be camp" and is,
therefore, already making fun of itself. (Click here for Sontag's article.)
Dystopia (dystopic):
An imagined universe (usually the future of our own world) in which a worst-case scenario is
explored; the opposite of utopia. Dystopic stories have been especially influential on
postmodernism, as writers and film-makers imagine the effects of various aspects of our
current postmodern condition, for example, the world's take-over by machines (The Matrix);
the social effects of the hyperreal (Neuromancer); a society completely run by media
commercialism (The Running Man); the triumph of late capitalism (Blade Runner);
bureaucratic control run amok (Brazil, 1984); and so on. For a Lesson Plan that ties such
stories to postmodern theory, see the Postmodernism: Lesson Plans:
Matrix/Neuromancer pathway.
Kitsch:
The reduction of aesthetic objects or ideas into easily marketable forms. Some theorists of
postmodernism see the "kitschification" of culture as one symptom of the postmodern
condition. The term can be as difficult to define as its companion term, "camp," since there are
so many disparate examples that can be cited as kitsch. Jean Baudrillard provides us with a
useful definition: "The kitsch object is commonly understood as one of that great army of
'trashy' objects, made of plaster of Paris [stuc] or some such imitation material: that gallery of
cheap junkaccessories, folksy knickknacks, 'souvernirs', lampshades or fake African masks
which proliferate everywhere, with a preference for holiday resorts and places of leisure"
(Consumer Society 109-10). As Baudrillard goes on, "To the aesthetics of beauty and
originality, kitsch opposes its aesthetics of simulation: it everywhere reproduces objects
smaller or larger than life; it imitates materials (in plaster, plastic, etc.); it apes forms or
combines them discordantly; it repeats fashion without having been part of the experience of
fashion" (Consumer Society 111). My class on the Holocaust (HONR 199K) defined kitsch
on January 23,2001 by way of Spielberg's film, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: 1) kitsch
tends to simplify and trivialize complex ideas by reducing them to black-and-white
stereotypes, as Dale Fresch explained (for example, Sean Connery's speech about the "armies
of darkness"); 2) it is oriented to the masses and thus tends towards a lowest-common
denominator so that anyone can relate; 3) it tends to be tied to mass consumption and thus to
profit-making entertainment. As Baudrillard puts it, "This proliferation of kitsch, which is
produced by industrial reproduction and the vulgarization at the level of objects of distinctive
signs taken from all registers (the bygone, the 'neo', the exotic, the folksy, the futuristic) and
from a disordered excess of 'ready-made' signs, has its basis, like 'mass culture', in the
sociological reality of the consumer society" (Consumer Society 110); 4) kitsch remains, on the
whole, completely unselfconscious and without any political or critical edge. When kitsch
becomes especially self-conscious it begins to tip over into camp. The one point in the Last
Crusade where kitsch could be said to tip over into camp is when Hitler himself signs Indiana
Jones' book in the film.
Simulacrum (simulacra):
Something that replaces reality with its representation. Jean Baudrillard in "The Precession of
Simulacra" defines this term as follows: "Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a
referential being, or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or

reality: a hyperreal.... It is no longer a question of imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody.
It is a question of substituting the signs of the real for the real" (1-2). His primary examples are
psychosomatic illness, Disneyland, and Watergate. Fredric Jameson provides a similar
definition: the simulacrum's "peculiar function lies in what Sartre would have called
the derealization of the whole surrounding world of everyday reality" (34)