INCONGRUOUS EÇA: NOTES ON CAMP AND THE LITERARY PERFORMANCE OF THE MASQUERADE

Abstract

To read Eça’s work through a camp lens focuses on the multi-faceted levels of textual interpretation that permeate the author’s writing. Eça’s form of camp playfulness is for the most part divested of its now oft political meaning that since the 1920s has been slanted to effeminate homosexual actions, in particular in theatrical and film argot. Rather, this study draws from this sensitivity in its more general and original application as it resonates in actions and gestures of exaggerated emphasis, excessive stylization, contrasts between negligible content and elaborate form, incongruous juxtapositions of style, aesthetics, class and circumstance, and comically speaking, the shamelessness that the camp masquerade affords in terms of an alternative to morally or socially correct laughter. Ultimately, this investigation hopes to open a discussion that considers camp avant la lettre a new point of contact for Eça’s fin de siècle aesthetics alongside other writers of the time who likewise emphasize make-believe, literary masking and narrative misdirections similar to Eça’s ingenious dialectical camp process.