On Political Cartoons and Social Studies Textbooks: Visual Analogies, Intertextuality, and Cultural Memory

Abstract

Political cartoons are animated through visual analogies that imply a likeness between the event portrayed in the image and the issue on which the cartoonist is making comment. Although many kinds of analogies can be used, meanings arise as the viewer is able to recognize and interpret them. This becomes difficult, though, when a cartoon's analogy is drawn from contemporary or historical events, plays on literary allusions, or uses past cultural knowledge not readily available to a viewer. The resultant intertextuality assumes an ideal viewer and a narrow cultural memory that have consequences for who is included in, and excluded from, the ongoing editorial conversation. Issues flowing from this assumed memory are discussed in relation to social studies textbooks used in British Columbia.