Camp, czyli kamp, czyli co?

Based on the ideas of Peter Sloterdijk from his The Critique of Cynical Reason, Magala attempts to determine the meaning and role of the camp in contemporary culture. Also, he used the canonical text by Susan Sontag entitled Notes on Camp and confronted it with determinants of camp stylistics from different areas—global and Polish. He paid particular attention to the problem of the relationship between camp and kitsch. According to camp program, high culture is mixed with low culture and ironic distance is the background of the process of mixing. Magala believes that the phenomenon is rooted in cynicism. He also believes (and he uses Susan Sontag’s idea to prove it) that camp, founded on such an attitude, is a manifestation of dulling sensitivity in pop culture—and in particular, the manifestation of ubiquity of information on major atrocities and suffering.