Le Petit Bonhomme: Islam in Political Cartoons

Authors: Alina Stepanov, Samuel Galloway

SUNY Campus: Purchase College

Presentation Type: Oral

Location: UUW 324

Presentation #: 2

Timeslot: Session B 10:15-11:15 AM

Abstract: Political cartooning is a form of media that can inhabit a transgressive or derisive space that vehicles political persuasion. This phenomenon exists in French satire, where political cartoons are considered a social tradition, the main trait of which is the representation of le petit bonhomme in caricatures—a representation present in Charlie Hebdo's cartoons. My research of political cartoons before and after the Charlie Hebdo attacks uses modern semiotic analysis to track how le petit bonhomme fashions race and gender concerning Islam and laïcité. This leads me to pose the question: How does political cartooning vilify the image of postcolonial immigrants by using French ideology, such as laïcité, to vehicle an anti-immigration discourse? To analyze this, I first study political cartoons discussing the 2005 banlieue riots that link postcolonial immigrant status and Islam to violence. After the Charlie Hebdo attacks, I argue that the initial image of violence evolves into one of terror. Lastly, I analyze the hijab ban controversy and how political cartoons illustrate and contradict its political deliberations relating to Islam and immigration in France. Therefore, since the Charlie Hebdo attacks, the makeup of political cartooning is put into question as it became a battleground for French ideology that eventually turns into a French imperialism and anti-immigration discourse. This discourse targets postcolonial immigrants by accusing them of Islamic sectarianism and radicalism. Consequently, political cartoons are used in France to construct a message that vilifies postcolonial immigrants.