English 11.67
Writing Exercise: Image Analysis & Issues of Representation

In the late 1970s or so, a new writer of the X-Men comic decided to introduce a number of non-white, non-American heroes to the X-Men team. In an attempt to make these characters readily recognizable to a teenage audience, Chris Claremont (the writer) tapped into some common preconceptions about different nationalities.

Note these examples:
Nightcrawler (German male)
Colossus (Russian male)
John Proudstar (Native American male)
Storm (African female)


An Irish hero named "Banshee" also claimed a spot on the new roster of X-Men. Your task, should you choose to accept it (and you will), involves looking over the following renderings of Banshee and generating declarative sentences about three of the images listed below. This exercise will encourage development of two skills: identifying and interpreting visual clues in provocative images from American culture, and applying active voice.

Step 1: choose three images from those below. Instead of reading all the dialogue in each of the pages below, scan the text to get the general idea. While the sentences you're about to write may be informed by the dialogue next to the comic images, please focus your attention on the images themselves. Choose three that interest you. If you want to refer to a particular panel/box within a page, count the boxes left to right. Example: the picture of Banshee with a long-stemmed pipe in his mouth would be referred to as: "Image B, panel 4." (5 minutes)

Step 2: construct a one-sentence statement about each of the three images, a statement that makes some claim about the image's meaning or significance. These three sentences should employ passive voice. Sentences might begin, "Image A is . . ." or "Representations of the national "other" like that in Image D are often . . ." (5 minutes)

Step 3: take the three sentences you constructed for Step 2 and rephrase them, this time using active voice. The claim contained within the sentence should remain the same, but the wordering and perhaps syntax will change. Examples might include: "Image B suggests that . . ." or "In contrast to the images that precede it, Image E irresponsibly perpetuates a common stereotype about . . ." (5 minutes)

Step 4: a few students will share their sentences with the class (5 minutes)

Image A


Image B


Image C


Image D


Image D


Image E


Image F


Image G


Image H


Image I


Image J


Image K

Paul Marchbanks
marchban@email.unc.edu