Date of Award

6-2016

Document Type

Open Access

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Political Science

Second Department

Modern Languages and Literatures

First Advisor

Lori Marso

Second Advisor

Charles Batson

Language

English

Keywords

french, cartoons, muslim

Abstract

This combined thesis for Political Science and French and Francophone Studies will address the issue of political cartooning in relation to democracy. This thesis will show how political cartooning explores the ambiguities and contradictions of citizenship for Muslims in France. Cartoons reveal the ostracizing of citizens, the challenges of integration, and the difficulties of discovering an identity as an immigrant through explicit, shocking, and often uncomfortable imagery. By analyzing the backlash against cartoons, the effects of cartoons on the Muslim minority in France, and the ways in which traditional French cartooning has the potential to be a positive force for social change, the absolute necessity of political cartooning to democracy becomes evident. To show the invaluable relationship between democracy and political cartooning, I analyze controversies surrounding Charlie Hebdo and their implications, Riad Sattouf’s graphic novel “The Arab of the Future” and its relation to French Muslim identity and integration, and the organization of Cartooning for Peace and the ways in which cartooning can encourage world-wide inclusion of minorities.

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