Wednesday- Friday, December 19-21 Satire as social justice

Saturday Night Live's  week's news in review. How many allusions do you know?
Just for fun!
decorating the White House Christmas Tree

Horatian vs Juvenalian Satire

Satirical literature can commonly be categorized as either Horatian or Juvenalian, although the two are not entirely mutually exclusive.

Horatian

Horatian satire, named for the Roman satirist Horace (65–8 BCE), playfully criticizes some social vice through gentle, mild, and light-hearted humour. It directs wit, exaggeration, and self-deprecating humour toward what it identifies as folly, rather than evil. Horatian satire’s sympathetic tone is common in modern society.

Horatian examples: 

The Devil's Dictionary by  Ambrose Bierce

Dead Souls by Nicolai Gogol

The Simpsons by Matt Groening

Dr. Strangelove by Stanley Kubrick

The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope

The Rick Mercer Report by Rick Mercer

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Juvenalian

Juvenalian satire, named after the Roman satirist Juvenal (late 1st century – early 2nd century CE), is more contemptuous and abrasive than the Horatian. Juvenalian satire addresses social evil through scorn, outrage, and savage ridicule. This form is often pessimistic, characterized by irony, sarcasm, moral indignation and personal invective, with less emphasis on humor. Strongly polarized political satire is often Juvenalian. 

Examples:

England, England by Julian Barnes

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Heart of the Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

***********************************************************************

Satire and Social Justice

Learning Targets:

I can cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
I can determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness or beauty of the text.
I can integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats

Essential question: How effective are satirical cartoons in conveying social justice issues?
Below you will find 4 cartoons that focus on social justice issues: racial profiling, poverty and environmental justice, gay rights and gender discrimination. 

We are looking at contemporary editorial cartoons that employ the strategies of satire, irony, idioms, puns, caricature and dialogue. 

Assignment: I have used different formatting to approach each of the 4 cartoons: 2 graphic organizers and 2 with a series of questions. All require that you look carefully at the cartoon and read the supporting material. I suggest that you copy the material onto a word document and work for there. This is due at the end of class on Friday, December 22. Although this is in reality a two-day assignment, I have allocated enough time for any field trips and "catch-up" for missing work. 

Editorial Cartoons to Teach Social Justice

Essential Questions to consider as you look at a satirical cartoon:

• How are editorial cartoons different from other kinds of art and media?
• Why do artists create editorial cartoons?
• How can images and text work together to deliver a message?
• How do I interpret an editorial cartoon?
• What are the important elements that many artists use in editorial cartoons?

1. racial profiling

Visuals	Words (not all cartoons contain words)
1.1.       List the people or objects you see in the cartoon.	1.2.       Identify the cartoon caption or title. 1.3.       Locate three words or phrases used by the cartoonist to identify objects or people within the cartoon. 1.4.       Record any important dates or numbers that appear in the cartoon.
1.5.       Describe the action taking place in the cartoon. Use complete sentences
1.6.       Explain how the words in the cartoon clarify the symbols.
1.7.        Explain the message of the cartoon.
1.8.       What special interest groups would agree/disagree with the cartoon's message? Why?
1. 9.       How is the cartoonist employing the strategy of irony?

2.Poverty and environmental justice

. 

The Cartoon’s Strategies

2. 1. Visual Composition

Visual composition refers to the way the objects are situated in a cartoon (or photo or painting). Complete the chart to compare the visual elements of the cartoon that refer to rich and poor. You may first want to define “rich” and “poor.”

Look over the information in your chart.

2.2 What does the visual composition of the cartoon tell you about the relationship between poverty and pollution?

. Satire

Now take what you've observed about the visual elements of the cartoon and think about another strategy the cartoonist uses: satire. Cartoonists use satire to exaggerate something. Sometimes it’s an action, other times an event or situation. Exaggeration makes it look ridiculous, and so exposes something troubling that the cartoonist is criticizing or wants to change.

Imagine, for example, that you think you have to take too many standardized tests, and you want to make an editorial cartoon that says so. You might show a student looking at her fall schedule and seeing these courses listed: Test-Taking in Math; Test-Taking in English; Test-taking in Social Studies. By suggesting that the student’s classes are all geared to preparing her for the test, the cartoon would be saying that school is more about preparing for the tests than about learning.

2.3 How does the cartoonist Steve Greenberg use satire in the cartoon?

2.4 What does the satire expose? What point does the cartoon make?


3. Gay Rights

The Cartoon’s Strategies

 Idioms

An idiom is a common phrase that can’t be understood literally. A few examples of idioms:We’re off the races; s/he had a hand in the cookie jar; and bite your tongue. In each case, the phrase isn’t literal. When someone says “Bite your tongue,” they don’t actually want you to bite your tongue. They want you not to say what you’re saying. A translation of “bite your tongue” might be: “Don’t say that because I hope it isn't true and I don’t even want to consider that it might be.”

Sometimes editorial cartoons use idioms to make their point. In this cartoon, the artist uses the phrase “equal ground.” Do a search to find out what the idiom “on equal ground” means. 

3.1  Write a definition

 Puns or Plays on Words

This cartoon also uses a play on words. Consider the image in the cartoon.

 3.2 What literal “ground” does the cartoon show? 

3.3 What point is the cartoonist making by using that image with the idiom “equal ground”?

3. 4 What does the cartoon say about equality for gays in the military?

4. Gender discrimination

This cartoon is particularly rich in visual images and words that the artist has used to make his point. 

 Note that her trophy says, "doesn't throw like a girl award."

Predict

Start with your overall impression and use it to predict what the cartoon is going to address.

 4.1 When you just glance at the cartoon, what do you see? What do you think the cartoon will be about?

 Symbols

a. Now look at the images. Sometimes a cartoon uses a person to represent something else. The Statue of Liberty is a symbol that represents freedom; Uncle Sam is a symbol that represents the United States. In this cartoon each person represents a whole group of people.

4.2 What groups do they represent? How can you tell?

4.3. What do you notice about the two people in the cartoon? Why do you think they appear this way?

 Words

a. Read the words in the cartoon. 

4.4 What labels appear on the people’s clothes? What labels appear elsewhere in the cartoon? What do these labels add to your understanding of the cartoon?

4.5 What does the caption say? What does it add to your understanding?

Tuesday, December 18 Satirical cartoons as a propaganda tool

I think we have sufficiently established how satire can help to make people aware of societal and political flaws. Today, however, we are going to switch it up and put the satire in the hands of the government and politicians, in this case the military and Walt Disney.

To begin, please watch the following 

documentary produced by the US government

 in World War II. 

blitz wolf

ASSIGNMENT: respond to the following prompt in approximately 150 words.
Please send along by midnight tonight, in order to receive full credit. 

1. Incorporating your knowledge of US history, what 

was the purpose of the film? Make sure to 

reference specific scenes and techniques. 

Review of satirical techniques

1. 1. parody-a piece of writing, music, etc., that imitates the style of someone or something else in an amusing way

1. 2. burlesque

   3. exaggeration- to think of or describe something as larger or greater than it really is

2.   4 juxtaposition-the act of placing two things next to each other
3. 
   

       5. analogy- that if two or more things agree with one another in some respects they will probably agree in others
4. 6. comparison-the act of looking at things to see how they are similar or different
5. 7. double entendre- ambiguity of meaning arising from language that lends itself to more than one interpretation
6. 
   

Friday / Monday December 15/ 118 satirical cartoons from around the world

Learning targets: I can analyze the impact of the author's choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story.

I can introduce precise, knowledgeable claim(s), establish the significance of the claim(s).

   

Assignment: below you will find 10 satirical cartoons from around the world.  Look at the images carefully, as well as any text. For each of the 10, explain the satirical message. You might have to do some research, if you are not current with the news. You responses should be a couple of well-written sentences for each, whose "evidence" is based upon specifics from the image.

These are due by the close of class on Monday.

cartoon 1

Dr. Seuss 1941

                                   cartoon 2

David Rowe, Australia

cartoon 3

Carlos Latuff, Brazil

cartoon 4

Lecctr, Belgium

cartoon 5

Sean Leahy, Australia
cartoon 5

Michael de Adder, Canada
cartoon 6

San Diego
                                           cartoon 7

                                                   cartoon 8

                                                           cartoon 9

                        cartoon 10

Wednesday / Thursday , December 13/ 14

history of satirical cartoons

 However you perceive the current political administration, take a look at its satirical impact. Note that the humor is based on facts.
Oval office cold open     earbuds needed

In class: please begin by reading the introductory material on satirical cartoons. This short reading will give you a framework to approach the assignment that follows.

****************************************************

They appear daily in British newspapers and have lampooned prime ministers for generations, but have political cartoons helped Britain avoid some of the political tumult of its European neighbors? 

For nearly 400 years, Britain has avoided violent struggles and political revolution.

In 1789, while France was busy overthrowing its royal rulers and unceremoniously chopping off the heads of its aristocrats, Britain shunned their revolutionary zeal, preferring a more sedate pace of change.

And where France led, others followed. In the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries virtually every other state in Europe has experienced at least one forcible overthrow of government.

Historians may have their theories as to why, and it's a rather novel one: political cartoons. 

This unique British contribution to the world of art  has helped stem the frustrations of the British people since it first started nearly 300 years ago.

"I believe that if you can laugh at your rulers, you don't cut off their heads. Laughter is an escape for those kinds of pent up feelings. It helps make society calmer."

Before cameras, radio and TV, it was the only way in which people got to see their politicians.  

With different attitudes to physical appearances and bodily functions, the early cartoons could be extremely rude.

In the 18th century they didn't have the same physical hang-ups that we do now - you had people farting, defecating, urinating, vomiting, fornicating - everything. No one escaped.

These can often capture a politician's character better than official portraits do. Caricatures can say in a flash what it takes 20 column inches or three minutes of TV to say. The cartoon has an immediate impact. They are snapshots of a given moment and can characterize people forever.

This anonymous cartoon above from 1740 satirizes 

Prime Minister Robert Walpole's love of patronage.

Below is William Hogarth's "Gin Lane", which depicts the evils  of the gin in 18th century England.

Assignment:

Parts of the following have been excerpted from the University of Virginia journalism education program. Please respond to the questions as you work through the images.

Enlarge your screen, as needed.

Please respond to the following questions, as pertains to the above material. These are due by midnight Thursday.
1 What are the two elements that make up a cartoon?
2. What was the purpose of Da Vinci's "Ideal of Deformity"?
3. What was the purpose of the original caricaturas?
4. Why were caricatures an effective way for Martin Luther to communicate his message? What was his message? Use descriptors from the image to support your statement.
5. Take a look at Cranach's caricature. (look, carefully)  Why in particular would have the populace related to this image? (Draw on your historical knowledge to answer this.
6. What was the original purpose of Franklin's cartoon? (Draw on your knowledge of US history.)
7. How was it later adapted? (Do research, if needed.)
8. What three elements made Thomas Nast's work so effective?
9. Why did Lincoln find Nast's cartoons an effective tool for his political agenda? (Again, draw on your historical knowledge.)
10. In a minimum of 50 words, explain the message in Nast's "Emancipation"?
11. What are some of the images Keppler uses to show how lawyers are corrupt?
12. Discuss some of the problems with female emancipation, according to Keppler's view.
13. What type of people running for office when Chester A. Arthur was president? Refer specifically to what you see in the cartoon.
14. Look at the Garfield comic. What type of animal are democrats riding on and what is the message being conveyed?

I) A Brief History of Cartoons 

Cartoons are for the most part composed of two elements: caricature, which parodies the individual, and allusion, which creates the situation or context into which the individual is placed. Caricature as a Western discipline goes back to Leonardo da Vinci's artistic explorations of "the ideal type of deformity"-- the grotesque-- which he used to better understand the concept of ideal beauty. Intended to be lighthearted satires, their caricaturas were, in essence, "counter-art. The sketch of "A Captain of Pope Urban VIII" is representative of the new genre in that it is a quick, impressionistic drawing that exaggerates prominent physical characteristics to humorous effect. At its best, it brings out the subject's inner self in a kind of physiognomical satire-- as the example presented here seems to be a comment on some facet of the Captain's masculinity. Caricaturas became popular with collectors, but they perceived the "fanciful exercises" as curiosities rather than viable artistic productions. They were not displayed publicly, and so one of the earliest modes of established graphic satire remained in the parlor and drawing room.

While caricature originated around the Mediterranean, cartoons of a more editorial nature developed in a chillier climate. The Protestant Reformation began in Germany, and made extensive use of visual propaganda; the success of both Martin Luther's socio-religious reforms and the discipline of political cartooning depended on a level of civilization neither too primitive nor too advanced. A merchant class had emerged to occupy positions of leadership within the growing villages and towns, which meant that a core of people existed, who would respond to Luther's invectives and be economically capable of resisting the all-powerful Catholic Church. In regards to the physical requirements of graphic art, both woodcutting and metal engraving had become established trades, with many artists and draughtsmen sympathetic to the cause. Finally, the factor which probably influenced the rise of cartoons more than any other cultural condition was a high illiteracy rate. Luther recognized that the support of an increasingly more powerful middle class was crucial to the success of his reforms, but in order to lead a truly popular movement he would need the sheer weight of the peasantry's 


An excellent example of Luther's use of visual protest is found in two woodcuts from the pamphlet "Passional Christi und Antichristi", originally drawn by Lucas Cranach the Elder. These two images contrast the actions of Jesus with those of the Church hierarchy; the hegemony of religion at the time ensured that when someone drew a Biblical episode like that of Jesus driving the moneychangers out of the Temple, everyone would recognize it.numbers. The distribution of simple broadsheet posters or illustrated pamphlets throughout population centers proved to be an effective strategy because the images would reach a large amount of people and enjoy the greatest possible amount of comprehension. 

Benjamin Franklin's "Join or Die", which depicts a snake whose severed parts represent the Colonies, is acknowledged as the first political cartoon in America. The image had an explicitly political purpose from the start, as Franklin used it in support of his plan for an intercolonial association to deal with the Iroquois at the Albany Congress of 1754. It came to be published in "virtually every newspaper on the continent"' reasons for its widespread currency include its demagogic reference to an Indian threat, as well as its basis in the popular supersition that a dead snake would come back to life it the pieces were placed next to each other.

The Story of William "Marcy" Tweed and his bete noir Tom Nast is known to most students of American history, and familiar to every aficionado of the history of American political cartooning. This confrontation is credited by consensus with establishing once and forever a fledgling craft. . . as an enduring presence in American political culture. In its telling is shown the power of the giants of the genre to fuse creative caricature, clever situational transpositions, and honest indignation to arouse the populace and alter for the better the course of human events.

Undoubtedly, Nast was the greatest popular artist of the Civil War; Lincoln was frequently quoted as saying Nast was his best recruiting sergeant, and his scenes of once-thriving southern cities like Richmond did much to convey the magnitude of destruction to Northern audiences.

After Nast became the featured cartoonist at Harper's much of his art was focused on the local New York scene. The primary shortcoming of Nast's work overall is that the quality of his satire never matched the quality of his art.

Joseph Keppler became the most commercially and critically acclaimed cartoonist of the Gilded Age. Shortly after his arrival in America in 1867 Keppler "fell in with a distinguished crowd of journalists, writers, and artists"-- including a young reporter named Joseph Pulitzer. Keppler and his associates had established an important connection with the local populace, relying heavily on international affairs and German-ethnic comedy. Unlike Nast's coarse etchings, Keppler's cartoons reflected "a grace of artistic approach" derived from his exposure to popular Austro-German styles of the day.

Keppler held that unscrupulous lawyers only encourage frivolous lawsuits. The family is destroyed: babies are abandoned in their nest; mother and father are carried off in opposite directions, delivered into the clutches of their respective lawyers.

Keppler's views of the family and women's rights were more traditional than progressive in this regard.

The success of a political cartoon rests in its ability "to influence public opinion through its use of widely and instantly understood symbols, slogans, referents, and allusions". "People cannot parody what is not familiar" to the audience; so the best cartoons incorporated popular amusements which emerged after the Civil War, as well as universally-recognized themes from the Bible, Shakespeare, and other "classic" sources.
President Chester A. Arthur

Cartoons concentrated on political activity, its artists tried to reflect facets of that environment's general atmosphere and distort them in such a way as to illuminate particular criticisms. For many years sports had been one of the favorite cartoon metaphors for politics. The detail from "The Political Handicap" is such an example, as its parody lies in the comparison of equestrian ability and effectiveness on the campaign trail. The image juxtaposes 1880 Republican presidential nominee James A. Garfield's confidence in the saddle with the indecisive Democrats, who had been unable to elect one of their own since James Buchanan in 1856.

Another trait of the political arena that held a great deal of weight with the masses was its emphasis on masculinity. One scholar of the era concisely describes the nature of gender identity in this regard:

Late nineteenth century election campaigns were public spectacles that ended for one side in triumph, for the other in humiliation. Men described these contests through metaphors of warfare and, almost as frequently, cock fighting and boxing. Victory validated manhood.

In Conclusion 
The decades of the nineteenth century after the Civil War, there emerged a political cultural rife with corruption and so provided the cartoonist with a fertile environment for spectacle and humor.