Siddharth Rao
Independent Researcher
Andhra Pradesh, India
Abstract
Political cartoons have long served as incisive commentaries on sociopolitical events, distilling complex national traumas into potent visual-metaphoric narratives that resonate with diverse audiences. In the aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, regional magazines across India emerged as critical sites of interpretive resistance and solidarity, deploying semiotic strategies that reflect localized linguistic identities and cultural sensibilities. This study presents a detailed linguistic semiotic analysis of ten selected post-emergency political cartoons published in five leading regional-language magazines (Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada) between December 2008 and May 2009. Employing a multimodal framework grounded in Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) visual grammar and Halliday’s (1978) systemic-functional linguistics, the research examines how iconographic elements, metaphoric symbolism, and code-mixed captions collaboratively construct political critique. A concurrent reader-response survey with 100 participants—spanning balanced gender representation, ages 18–65, and varying language proficiencies—yields empirical insights into interpretive patterns. Quantitative findings indicate that visual metaphors of fragmentation (e.g., cracked national maps) achieved high recognition rates (82%), whereas nuanced allegories critiquing governance structures registered moderate interpretation levels (56%). Bilingual respondents rated code-mixed captions significantly higher in clarity (M=4.5/5) than monolingual readers (M=3.8/5), highlighting the role of linguistic hybridity in audience comprehension. Qualitative feedback underscores how regional idiomatic expressions (e.g., Tamil “எரியாத தீ” [“unquenchable fire”]) heighten affective engagement, while unfamiliar English technical terms sometimes impede message reception. The integration of multimodal analysis with audience reception studies foregrounds the dialectical relationship between producer intent and consumer interpretation, revealing that effective political satire in multilingual contexts hinges on calibrated semiotic choices.
Keywords
Political Cartoons, Semiotics, Regional Magazines, Linguistic Analysis, Post-Emergency Satire
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