Literally: The Queerness of Things Just As They Are

A lively and accessible look at how queer artists turn everyday culture into surprising sites of humor, insight, and creative possibilityWhat happens when we take things literally?In Literally: The Queerness of Things Just as They Are, Michael P.Bibler argues that the literal, so often dismissed as obvious or unremarkable, has been a powerful and playful tool in queer cultural production.Examining music, literature, film, and visual art from the 1980s to the present, Bibler shows how queer artists and performers inhabit the norms and categories of mainstream culture as literally as possible, exposing their contradictions and opening new spaces for identity, pleasure, and community. Through inventive readings of works by the B-52s, Truman Capote, RuPaul, John Waters, and others, Bibler develops an original critical framework he calls "literal camp." Rather than relying on the irony of hidden meanings, these artists exaggerate basic, literal meanings without altering them, using hyperbol