Punctum.

By: Mihaela-Viorica Constantinescu

ABSTRACT

The study examines Romanian cartoons from the midnineteenth century that illustrate the satirical journals’ reaction against conservative press legislation affecting freedom of expression. The cartoons are excerpted from satirical publications issued by a famous journalist, Nicolae Orășanu, who was imprisoned several times for press delicts. In some cartoons, the artists refer to or allude to censorship or other political actions against the press and comment on the risk of imprisonment while doing one’s profession. The approach draws from discourse analysis supplemented by rhetorical and cognitive metaphor-driven theoretical suggestions. The results indicate that cartoons are primarily multimodal, with a marked preference for metonymy and synecdoche as semiotic resources. The journalist profession is represented metonymically via a writing instrument (a quill), while censors’ professional tools are represented as padlocks, handcuffs, scissors, chains, or muzzles. Recurring images are the single character to stand for a group (pars pro toto) and metonymic or synecdoche chains (instrument for action and action for agent). The exaggerated size of objects is meant to trigger emotional effects: empathy towards the press and discontent or indignation against political power. The article also examines cartoons’ potential contribution to creating a myth or romanticized perception of the journalist and/or cartoonist as an altruistic martyr or a hero, a social representation that emerged in the nineteenth century.

 
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