READING POLITICAL CARTOONS: ANALYSIS OF IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS IN MULTISEMIOTIC GENRE

Abstract

This work corresponds to the presentation of research results carried out in Portuguese language classes, in a second year high school class, in the state network in the city of Petrolina, Pernambuco, considering the context of textual and discursive changes driven by technical and scientific advances, such that texts become multisemiotic, i.e., they are dominated by various modalities (color, image, line, sound, etc.).  Specifically, we verified how the analysis and description of the use of idiomatic expressions in the elaboration of the multisemiotic political cartoon text can promote the construction of coherence by the reader, based on the understanding of the relationship between elements of the textual surface (Koch, 2011). As a theoretical framework, we use the theories: Visual Design Grammar (Kress; Van Leeuwen, 2006), Textual Linguistics (Koch; Travaglia, 2001), Semantics (Xatara, 2001) and Intersemiotic Translation (Jakobson, 1970). To describe the idiomatic expressions used by the author, we used the concept of “vector” (Kress; Van Leeuwen, 2006), through which it is possible to explain the actions of an actor towards a goal, which constitute the narrative scenes composed in the images.  After this verification, it was possible to favor the understanding of the author's intentions and how he combined elements of the text, in order to achieve his objective of satirizing a specific political fact. In this way, it was possible to develop 1) interpretation skills based on information from the socio-cognitive context, relating to the political scenario and social role of the cartoonist 2) global interpretation of the cartoons, as a unit of meaning, resulting from the understanding of idiomatic expressions, typical of orality, in visual construction. We verified, therefore, not only the development of reading and interpretation skills, but also critical literacy regarding the multisemiotic genre, so present in contemporary society.