Using examples, illustrate the theory of performativity and discuss the differences between gender as a performance and gender as performative.

Description

Assignment require you to write a critical paper on one of the topics provided (posted at least one month in advance). Keep in mind that a critical paper utilizes your own personal voice and writing style but is not a personal essay or an opinion piece. The paper should interpret and analyze texts, evaluate the arguments of authors, and formulate a response to the topic chosen which is supported by evidence. You are welcome to bring in whatever examples you see fit, but remember that you should show evidence of having read and understood the course readings that you utilize in your paper, and your paper should show some engagement with content discussed in lectures. Your paper should be 1200 words, +/- 10%, not counting titles or your Works Cited. You will lose partial points for writing less than 1080 words or more than 1320 words. Please reference at least one of the required readings from class in your paper. You should cite at least 5 sources total, referring to them in the text and including them in your Works Cited. The recommended readings should be helpful here. Feel free to cite these as sources along with others you may find. Please make sure at least 3 of your sources are academic sources (books or journal articles). You are welcome to also cite news/online articles, including but not limited to the ones we read in class, but be careful in selecting web articles based on quality. The style of your citations is up to you (e.g. MLA, Chicago, Harvard), but they should be consistent, and you should use page numbers (or ‘n.p.’ for no page) if you use direct quotes within the text (see below). In the Works Cited, you should normally include the author(s), date, title, publication the text can be found in (e.g. the name of a book the chapter is in, the name and issue of the journal an article is in, the name and issue of the newspaper an article is in), the total pages of the cited text (if applicable), and the publisher and location (if a book). Most styles require you to include a link for web sources, if you use a news article or journal article that can be found online.