Assignments: Batch One: Assignment 6

How gay is camp?

Guidance

For general guidance about what is expected in your essays for this module, see the guidelines for writing essays and reports.

What Key Features Do I Look For?

  • Familiarity with relevant texts
  • Evidence - the stronger the better
  • Argument - coherent and balanced
  • Theoretical discussion - relation to relevant theories
  • Understanding of relevant concepts
  • Reflexivity - reflections on methodology
  • Examples - insightfully analysed
  • Style - readability and effective presentation

Please remember to avoid footnotes and to include an alphabetical list of 'References' which have been cited in the text (not a Bibliography of anything you have read for the essay). This list should include author's names, date, book titles (in italics), place of publication and publisher. Within the text always cite author's surname, date and page number. Double-space your text and number your pages.

Guidance for this assignment: Try not to tie yourself up in knots defining 'camp': choose an existing definition which highlights a few salient features and focus on these. Is camp an exclusively gay phenomenon? Stereotyping (a key form of reality construction) is clearly an important concept here (the reductive equation of 'camp' with 'gay', which needs some explanation in relation to what I called the gender myth (lecture 1). Consider how this issue relates to an 'essentialist' notion of gay or lesbian identities - for which you need to consult some introductions to 'queer theory'. Anchor your text in extended discussions of particular examples in the mass media.

Note also that this is an assignment for which the inclusion of relevant pictorial illustrations may be useful. Use these to illustrate particular points. Contrasting one with another can also be productive. Incorporate illustrations electronically into your text (e.g. by scanning or downloading from the Internet) rather than literally cutting and pasting. For guidance on capturing stills, click here.

Some suggested reading

Note: Treat with extreme caution sources labelled with this symbol!


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