Political Cartoons: More Than Meets The Eye

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Art form that serves as a source of opinion on society.

Express viewpoints on political, economic, or social issues.

Political Cartoons: What? Why?

What subject or issue is the artist commenting on?

How is the subject portrayed?

What feelings are suggested by the images?

Artist’s Viewpoint

Caricature Captions/Labels Symbolism Stereotype Metaphor/analogy Satire Irony/Sarcasm

Artist’s Toolkit

CARICATURE - exaggerates one or more features of a person or thing. It attempts to say something about the person/thing’s character, beliefs, actions or significance.

INTERPRETING POLITICAL CARTOONS

CAPTIONS/LABELS- are used to clarify or add emphasis to the message of the cartoon.

INTERPRETING POLITICAL CARTOONS

SYMBOL- represents something else. It is a often a material object that represents something abstract or invisible (for example, the Statue of Liberty to represent freedom).

INTERPRETING POLITICAL CARTOONS

STEREOTYPES- works by taking a real or imagined trait of an individual to be true of the group to which the individual belongs. They express bias and can be unfair and harmful.

INTERPRETING POLITICAL CARTOONS

METAPHOR/ANALOGY- uses an object to note a similarity to something else. For example, using a tiger to represent one nation invading another.

INTERPRETING POLITICAL CARTOONS

SATIRE - uses humor to lower something or someone in the reader’s or viewer’s estimation. It is not mean-spirited and its point is not to harm. It exposes human folly to make room for improvement.

INTERPRETING POLITICAL CARTOONS

IRONY- expresses an idea through a contradiction between something’s literal meaning and the intended meaning. For example, picturing a U.S. president with a crown on his head. Irony highlights the difference between how things are and how they ought to be.

INTERPRETING POLITICAL CARTOONS

SARCASM- is a form of irony. The element that turns irony into sarcasm is the appearance of mockery, or bitterness.

INTERPRETING POLITICAL CARTOONS