The Law of the Wolf: How the Kukryniksy Trio Represented the Enemy as a “Wild” Animal in Cold War Political Cartoons in Pravda, 1965–1982

Författare

  • Reeta Kangas

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17409/kpt.v1i1.97

Abstract

This article examines how the Soviet Kukryniksy trio used wild animals in their political cartoons to depict the enemies of the Soviet Union. The primary material of this research consists of Kukryniksy’s 39 wild animal cartoons published in Pravda during 1965–1982. For my theoretical and methodological framework, I rely on frame analysis and propaganda theory. My aim is to demonstrate what kind of symbolic functions wild animals have in these cartoons and what kind of characteristics they attach to the enemies depicted. Furthermore, I aim to examine in what kind of frames the world was to be seen according to the Soviet propaganda machine, and how these frames were created with the use of wild animal characters. In these cartoons wild animals are used to reveal the “true” nature of the enemy. The animal’s symbolic functions may derive from the linguistic or other cultural contexts. The cartoons depict the enemy mainly as deceptive and ruthless, but simultaneously predictable to the Soviet Union. They also represent the enemy in a belittling light in order to retain the frame of the superiority of the Soviet Union over its enemies.

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Publicerad

2015-10-14

Referera så här

Kangas, R. (2015). The Law of the Wolf: How the Kukryniksy Trio Represented the Enemy as a “Wild” Animal in Cold War Political Cartoons in Pravda, 1965–1982. Årsboken om kulturpolitisk forskning, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.17409/kpt.v1i1.97

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