Lucia Rather former director for cataloging at the Library of Congress, gave a lecture at the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah on the 28th of November. She contends that political cartoons are propaganda and not art.
“A political cartoon is not just a picture, it’s a graphic illustration of an idea…the purpose is propaganda, not art,” Rather said.
She outlined four elements of political cartoons that help viewers to understand better the meaning behind them, including inspiration, symbols, allusions and humor.
Each lecture is broadcast on the local education radio station and an audio stream is archived. KUER is a month behind on posting lectures. I’ll post a link when I see it available.