The assignment is to employ the method of deconstruction on the photo below as described in Lubiano’s (1998) piece (and informed by the Lovelace and Turcotte, Penniman’s, and Roberts pieces as well) and to go though each step systematically.
First Step
Examine the photo and then read the short news article (to help you further contextualize the picture and its meaning).
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2018-02-21/why-the-us-has-little-research-on-guns
Second Step
Briefly answer how you can use the method of deconstruction to examine the photo and detail how you understand the method shifting the “discourse of gun control” in the attached photo. Briefly answering these questions will help you to answer the writing exercise prompt below in “Third Step.”
What do you understand about the method of deconstruction?
How does Lubiano (1998) use deconstruction to deconstruct the photo—how does she analyze the photo in her work, what questions does she ask of herself, the photo, the larger context? (These questions should be general and applicable to any photo.)
What is represented in the above photo? Or what is the photo a representation of? What’s in the frame, what’s outside of the frame?
In what ways does the above picture offer more meaning and understanding to the “discourse of gun control” than the written text of the corresponding article?
Third Step
For this step, be sure to do do all of the steps. The work of this exercise is to do the method of deconstruction, which in this example, breaks down the “discourse of gun control.” McQuillan’s (2000) steps are important to remember here (these can be found in the module’s “Introduction and Overview,” the Lovelace and Turcotte (2020) reading, and McQuillan’s chapter in the “Recommended Reading”:
In the picutre and corresponding article, what narrative(s) of “gun control” are presented? From it, what do you think is the dominant discourse of gun control is in the U.S.?
Identify and name some of the binary oppositions in the article (what is the privileged narrative and/or terms, what is the marginalized and/or terms);
Reverse these binary(ries) that you identified and named and explain what this reversal does– how does this reversal of the dominant terms and narratives in the article change your understanding of the power these narratives in your understanding of gun control;
Displace the system of binary thinking of gun control in the article by naming the new questions or new insights you have about the way gun control is presented (and its effects) in U.S. society– pays more attention to the “grey areas” rather than the binary debate that “guns should be regulated” or “guns should not be regulated.” (Remember, as anti-oppressive researchers, the moment in which we recognize inequality what do we then have to do so as not to reproduce inequality or retarget communities for further regulation); and
Name explicitly the importance of using deconstruction–why might it be important to deconstruct and analyze the article’s meaning making in this way, why is it imporant to deconstruct the discourse of gun control– what is at stake if we don’t?
