The Literariness of Graphic Satire
The Literariness of Graphic Satire
This introductory chapter discusses the literariness of graphic satire. First applied to visual satire in the mid-nineteenth century, the term graphic satire problematically implies a straightforward formal equivalence between the modern editorial cartoon and the political caricature of the Georgian period, which was published and disseminated as a single-sheet etching. However, the fallacy that such images yield their meaning directly and near instantaneously is an old one. To speak of the literariness of caricature is to recognize and attend to its syntactical and narrative structures: structures that are themselves constituted through the enmeshing of images and words; the appropriation and parody of literary scenes and tropes; and often-dense networks of allusions to other cultural texts, practices, and traditions. It is also necessary to acknowledge that a print's meaning and sociopolitical orientation comes into focus only when seen in relation to the cultural constellation of which it was a vital and highly self-conscious constituent.
Keywords: graphic satire, visual satire, editorial cartoon, political caricature, narrative structures, syntactical structures, parody, allusions
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