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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Soka University Japan - Transcend Art and Peace
Created: December 1, 2002
Latest Update: December 14, 2002
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Policitcal Cartoons and Illocutionary Discourse
Professional Cartoonists' Index

Some sample cartoons are included here from Slate.com, Professional Cartoonists' Index, to give you a sense of how these might play into your scholarly and theoretical work. By the way, the Slate site permits you to send e-mail cards of many of these cartoons.jeanne

• Cagle's cartoon refers back to Lincoln fighting to end segregation and slavery, with Lott representing, as I understand it, those who thought slavery and segregation were the foundation of the life to which they were entitled. Reckon you'd have to call this a left perspective, if you're considering the "Old South" perspective as right-wing, that is. Not all people do so consider it.

  One of the advantages the cartoon brings to public discourse on such issues is through the immediate invocation of many beliefs and values through the well-known personages involved. By making us laugh at the foolishness of some of our arguments, the cartoonist can bring us to greater awareness. An illocutionary role?

  

• Mike Thompson, of the Detroit Free Press, brought out the depth of the implications of Lott's dream of a segregated white society. Civil rights and cross-burning would never have become an issue. Notte that placing the scene before the Supreme Court evokes the whole history of Civil Rights legislation there. Again, knowing some history would seem like a good idea.