Somehow, Palpatine Returned: Reading Star Wars as Camp

Star Wars English Class

In this episode, Fern teaches Julia about Camp! Camp is a mode of aestheticism that focuses on exaggeration, artifice, and playfulness. It is, according to Susan Sontag, “the good taste of bad taste,” a way of looking at a text that encourages readers to be “serious about the frivolous, frivolous about the serious.” Is Star Wars, with all its focus on visuals and aesthetics, its exaggerated characters, its juxtaposition of sci-fi glamour and dirt, Camp? What do we gain if we choose to read it as Camp? Does its overtly political themes and messaging negate a Camp reading of the text? And is “Somehow, Palpatine returned” the Campiest line in contemporary cinema?

On the Syllabus:

• Susan Sontag, “Notes on Camp” (1964)
• Franziska Bergmann, Ingrid Hotz-Davies, Georg Vogt, The Dark Side of Camp Aesthetics: Queer Economies of Dirt, Dust, and Patina (2017)
• Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
• Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)
• Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Social Media:
@swenglishclass on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram
Julia is on TikTok @juliachristine77
Fern is on TikTok @alwaysfern
Business inquiries: [e-mail]
Logo by Jacob David Earl (@jacobdavidearl)
Music by ZapSplat.com

Chapters

1. Introduction (00:00:00)

2. "Notes on Camp" (00:06:50)

3. Original Trilogy (00:30:16)

4. Prequel Trilogy (00:47:29)

5. Sequel Trilogy, Rogue One, and Solo (01:04:10)

6. TV, Books, Comics, and more (01:22:11)