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Multimodal Argumentation and Rhetoric in Media Genres
Edited by Assimakis Tseronis and Charles Forceville
[Argumentation in Context 14] 2017
► pp. 81–110

Chapter 3
Editorial cartoons and ART

Arguing with Pinocchio

Though they are often ignored in serious scholarship, editorial cartoons are an important vehicle for multimodal arguing. The present chapter outlines an “ART” approach to editorial cartoons which is rooted in contemporary argumentation theory. A series of examples are used to show how cartoons can be analyzed as instances of argument. To illustrate the significance of particular cartoon motifs, the chapter focuses on cartoons that depict political figures as Pinocchio – the magical wooden puppet in Carlo Collodi’s renowned children’s novel. In a number of ways, these cartoons challenge traditional assumptions that characterize conventional accounts of argument – among them, the common claim that pictures cannot negate.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.An ART approach to argument
    • 2.1Arguing, verbal and visual
    • 2.2Recognizing argument components
    • 2.3Testing the strength of arguments
  • 3.Pinocchio
    • 3.1Pinocchio as a form of visual negation
    • 3.2Pinocchio arguments
    • 3.3Testing Pinocchio arguments
    • 3.4Extended Pinocchio arguments
  • 4.Why Pinocchio? Why editorial cartoons?
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 20 December 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aic.14.04gro
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