Abstract:
Since their appearance, cartoons and their creators took interest in social and political facts and figures. Often a more direct witness than a text, cartoons were quickly transformed from their initial entertaining role, to a tool to attack oppressors and reveal social injustices. To easily communicate with their public, they had to share the same codes and experiences that lived their audience in the society. Various social factors were sometimes unconsciously transmitted in the drawing through the psyche of the cartoon’s creator, which was formed during his life, and sometimes consciously applied in the cartoon’s decoration, appearance or the movement of the characters in order to further elucidate the message. Therefore, cartoon analysis must take account of all social elements at the time of cartoons’ production and reception. In this area, French specialists, especially Roland Barthes are among the leading figures who have worked on the role of socials factors in image analysis. In this article, their opinions are applied to cartoon analysis in order to better understand the way a cartoon is intended to send a message to its public.
Machine summary:
In this article after a brief etymology of the word caricature (French designation of cartoon), first the social concepts according to Duvignaud, common in all work of art will be examined.
We will then discuss the social contexts of caricatures at the time of their production and reception; finally, the socio-cultural codes in linguistic codes, facial expressions and body movements of characters in the cartoons will be developed and explained.
Georges Friedmann has an assessment on works of art that can extend well on the satirical drawing; according to him, a work of art, once produced, is primarily a technical result, then the result of individual and collective psychology, and finally a sociological testimony (cited by Social Factors in Cartoon Analysis through French Specialists Francastel, 1965: 40).
Analysis of a work of art or a cartoon may still concern other sociological factors such as the context of its creator, the events at the time of its creation, the host society, and/or the socio-cultural codes of the represented characters.
Some images speak specifically of something that happened at a specific moment or a specific period; in such cases, the observer better understands the work if he knows the represented event, as well as event that the image Social Factors in Cartoon Analysis through French Specialists refers to.
History of the face Social Factors in Cartoon Analysis through French Specialists exercise of gaze (look) to notice the morphological and expressive signifiers, coming from interiority which reveal the human psychic meant features as signified (his nature, his character, his inclinations, passions, vices and virtues, emotions, etc.