Abstract：A political cartoon, a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic artistic combination of drawing or painting, together with news commentary, has long reflected the political discourse in western culture. In these cartoons, authors usually use rhetorical devices, particularly figures of speech and other metaphorical, symbolic, anthropomorphic, exaggerated, and humorous tactics to implicitly express their understanding of and attitude towards political figures or events. In this way can cartoonists put up their political criticism and provoke social thinking, so as to influence or even shape public opinion. Due to political sensitivity, authors often obscure the literal meaning, imply it between the lines and resort to subtle forms of humor to express the opposite idea. Thus, irony, a key skill of expression and figure of speech, has become one of the most distinctive linguistic features in English political cartoons.

Aimed at exploring the artistic language features in political cartoons, this thesis probes into the background of these cartoons, analyzes the strategy and effect of irony use, and the purpose achieved, and thus summarizes the art of irony in English political cartoons. The essay can be pided into three parts, a study of irony as a rhetorical art, the application of irony in political cartoons and its social significance. Through widely collecting data, critically thinking about English political cartoons and making detailed textual analysis, the thesis comes to a conclusion that the existence and popularity of political cartoons largely attributes to the artistic uses of irony therein.

Key Words: political cartoon, irony, cartoonist

摘要：政治漫画是一种典型的非写实或半写实的绘画艺术组合，通常带有新闻评论，长久以来反映了西方文化中的政治话语。在这些漫画中，作者通常使用修辞手段特别是通过修辞格和其他隐喻、象征、拟人、夸张和幽默策略来含蓄地表达其对政治人物或政治事件的理解和态度。通过这种方式，漫画家可以进行政治批评，引发社会群体的思考，从而影响乃至形成社会舆论。由于政治具有独特的敏感性，作者在政治漫画中往往模糊了字面意义，将其隐于字里行间，并采用幽默的形式来表达其相反的想法。于是，反讽因其表述和修辞的主要技巧，成为英语政治漫画中最具特色的语言特征之一。

本文旨在探讨政治漫画的艺术语言特征，通过探讨这些漫画的背景，分析反讽使用的策略和效果以及其达到的目的，从而总结英语政治漫画中的反讽艺术。整篇论文可以分为三个部分：反讽作为修辞艺术的研究，反讽在政治漫画中的运用及其社会意义。通过广泛收集资料，批判性地思考英语政治漫画并进行详细的文本分析，本文得出结论，政治漫画的存在和普及主要归因于其中反讽的艺术作用。

关键词：政治漫画，反讽，漫画家

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments i

Abstract ii

摘要 iii

1 Introduction of English Political Cartoons 1

1.1 Definition of English Political Cartoons 1

1.2 Development of English Political Cartoons 1

1.3 Characteristics of English Political Cartoons 2

2 Literature Review 4

3 Introduction of Irony 7

3.1 Definition of Irony 7

3.2 Development of Irony 8

3.3 Types of Irony 8

3.4 The Role of Irony in Political Cartoons 9

4 The Characteristics of Irony Use in English political cartoons 11

4.1 Verbal Irony 11

4.2 Dramatic Irony 13

4.3 Situational Irony 15

5 Strategies of Irony Use in Political Cartoons 18

5.1 Irony as a Rhetorical Strategy 18

5.2 Irony as a Social Communication Strategy 18

6 Conclusion 20

Bibliography 21

1 Introduction of English Political Cartoons

Cartoon is a two-dimensional illustration or animation. In the 19th century, cartoons referred to illustrations in newspapers. After the early 20th century cartoons developed a wider significance in comic strips and animated films. Nowadays, it literally means a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic artistic style of drawing or painting. Cartoon is intended for satire or humor with an image or series of images. And because of its short but humorous language style, cartoon catches enough public attention as a kind of social media. The artist who writes and draws such commentary images is usually known as the cartoonist. Cartoon underwent a process of great change and highspeed development. Since its emergence, with its distinctive artistic form of expression, cartoons have especially attracted young readers’ attention.