In this article Harvey calls on the explanatory power of linguistics to analyse a particular literary discourse, “camp”, and its homosexual coding in recent French and Anglo-American fiction. He then considers the various issues raised by translating this discourse into English and French, shedding light on the interrelationships between translation, cultural difference, and sexual identity. A French translator, for instance, omitted the camp in an American novel about gay men for French cultural reasons: the existence of a sexual minority signalled by this discourse runs counter to Enlightenment notions of universal humanity that have prevailed in France since the Revolution. An American translator, in contrast, not only reproduced the camp assigned to a character in a French novel, but also recast a seduction scene in homosexual terms. The English translation reflects the more militant approach to sexual identity in Anglo-American culture, where a discourse like camp functions as a means for gay men to criticize straight society.