From resistance to reconciliation and back again: A semiotic analysis of the Charlie Hebdo cover following the January 2015 events

Abstract

AbstractTheCharlie Hebdomagazine’s 1178 edition was published following the deadly attack against the magazine’s cartoonists on 7 January 2015. The cover portrays the prophet Muhammad holding a sign with the phraseJe Suis Charlie(“I am Charlie”), titled with the phrasetout est pardonne(“all is forgiven”). This paper utilizes two levels of semiotic analyses. The first applies a direct, first level, semiotic reading while the second applies Roland Barthes’ idea of “Myth.” The analyses identify the tension between resistance and reconciliation as a key dialectical axis that drives the interpretive process. Tensions between East-West, religious-secular, natives-immigrants, and Islam-Christianity are all invoked by this cover, generating an extraordinary example of the complexity that cartoons are able to carry out as a form of intertwining semiotic systems. The first level of analysis finds an appropriation of Muhammad’s image in order to deliver messages of reconciliation and solidarity. The second level of analysis – a reading of the cover through Barth’s “Myth” – finds instead a Christian martyr, a Jesus image, replacing Muhammad and functioning as a divisive force that feeds the discourse of cultural clash.