Anatomy of the 1936––39 Revolt: Images of the Body in Political Cartoons of Mandatory Palestine
This article analyzes body images in political cartoons during the 1936––1939 Arab Revolt. By deciphering the visual messages in the political cartoons of two newspapers——the Arabic Filastin and the Hebrew Davar ——the article examines how body representations portray stereotypes of rivals and reveal assumptions about and relations between conflicting parties. Visual imagery maintained its impact by illustrating nationalist attitudes, critiques, and goals. In addition to being referents to a period not well documented in images, cartoons are also potent historical sources for reconstructing a sociopolitical history of Palestine.
A social semiotic analysis of gender power in Nigeria’s newspaper political cartoons
ABSTRACT This paper is a critical examination of the ideological underpinnings of cartoons in Nigeria’s socio-political milieu. The study seeks to unveil cartoonists’ strategic moves to (mis)represent Nigerian women. The data comprise 10 political cartoons which were selected using a purposive-sampling method in line with the thematic concern of the study. They were analysed using Kress and Van Leeuwen’s social semiotic approach to the analysis of multimodal texts along with insights from critical discourse analysis (CDA). Findings reveal that semiotic resources, such as pronominal choices, speech acts, labelling, visual metaphorisation, information value, salience/emphasis, and framing, play significant roles in cartoonists’ commentaries on gender-related issues in Nigeria’s socio-political domain. Viewed against the United Nations’ global goal of gender equality by 2030, the study concludes that Nigerian newspaper political cartoonists’ representation of women ideologically both (re)produces or resists (un)equal gender relations among Nigerian citizens.
Population and Society in the Arab East.
The social, political and economic impact of the decline of the old colonial powers in Africa, India and the Middle East are still key areas of scholarly research and debate. Based on careful social observation and empirical research, these titles explore the tension between agriculture and industry in developing economies, and trace the complex political process of independence. Aimed at administrators and academics, these studies are central to Development Studies, and also present the work of renowned anthropologists such as Raymond Firth.