3rd SOUTH EUROPEAN AND MEDITERRANEAN CONFERENCE ON ‘CITIZENSHIP, IDENTITY AND CULTURE’ – May 6, 7, 8, 2011 Economic crisis, visual literacy and citizenship: Six cartoonists “targeting” the economic crisis Kyridis A., Michailidis I., Papoutzis L., Vamvakidou I., Tziamtzi C. (2011)

Introduction Public discourse in many cases is expressed through political cartoons. Using complex signs, cartoons are funny while their role in the shaping of public opinion is considered to be essential A cartoon is “a drawing, representational or symbolic, that makes a satirical, witty, or humorous point” (Lee, 2003)

CaricaturesAllusions used as parodies for the individual exhibited determine the circumstances into which the individual is positioned transmittance of views or messages aiming at social control with the usage of humor (Edwards, 2001, Plumb, 2004:432)

Cartoons in Press and Society Political cartoons in the everyday press characterizes the political and social ethics of a society as well as the quality of democracy Freedom of press, with the analogous usage of political cartoons with their subversive control of political power, indicates the level of democratization of a state (Tunç, 2002) Political cartoons are not necessarily “dangerous” for those in power and their ideology : in many cases political cartoons are used in order to guide their consumers to “read” and understand political actions in favor of the dominant ideology (Giarelli & Tulman, 2003)

What makes us laugh? Plato – Aristotle Theory of Superiority Laughter as an impolite reaction to the defects or calamities of others Psychoanalysis – Sigmund Freud Natural aggressiveness and sexual urges are depressurized through the use of jokes Theory of incongruity For anything to be considered as humorous, it has to bring forth an incongruity which is against to what is expected and should be happening

Objectives - The Aim In our research, we are trying to determine how the Greek citizen is presented, the position of the Greek government towards its citizens and the international organizations/community is demonstrated and which elements of citizenship are affected in the artists’ perspective The aim of this project is to teach post-modern citizenship in the context of modern capitalistic crisis using visual material such as post-modern graphic- designs and cartoons.

The Data – Researching Problem Our data consist of 30 cartoons, exposed in the Municipal Gallery of Piraeus. Six cartoonists exposed their work from the 28th of January to the 4th of February 2011, entitled “The crisis of 6”. We are interested in revealing the stereotypes and the construction of different meanings in order to de-construct the ideological and political denotations/connotations. The researching problem refers to the visual literacy in relation to the notion and the practices of citizenship that seems to be reconstructed nowadays in the middle of the social-political and economic crisis

Analysis

The transformation of the year 2011 into the well-known New York Twin Towers of the World Commercial Center and the 9/11 incident brings the economic measures of the memorandum in a destruction context. In this scenario, Greece and its citizens are having an attack by the European- Global community which in this cartoon, they have the role of terrorists and they are presented as such. The obligations derived from our participation to the Global and the European community connotes destruction during the certain year. Also, the Twin-towers as an economic center and as a symbol of citizens’ participation to economic life signify citizenship which in this context is under terrorists’ attack. The citizens below them, having expressions of terror and panic are trying to avoid the “fall-down” which also signifies active citizenship’s non participation. The community here is present through the crowd with its citizens defenseless against the above determined obligations.