Egyptian Revolution in American Cartoons: A Semiotic Approach

Political caricatures, like many other examples of "visual arguments", amalgamate both visual and verbal expressions to work together in an effort to prompt different responses from the audience. This book conducts a semiotic analysis of some American political cartoons which depict the Egyptian Revolution of 25 th January that took place following a popular uprising on Tuesday, 25 January 2011. It is an attempt to determine if the social, cultural and even religious background of cartoonists affect their choice of symbols or not. Moreover, the author works to prove the role of political cartoons in portraying the surrounding circumstances, especially the political ones. The analysis yields the conclusion that the American political cartoonists tried to depict the Egyptian Revolution from their points of view as foreigners, tourists or strangers. On the other hand, the cartoonist who has previous Arabic roots, like Carlos Latuff, succeeds in describing the Revolution from many different facets as a native person.