THE IMAGOLOGICAL BESTIARY IN THE POLITICAL CARICATURE AT THE TURN OF THE XIX–XXTH CENTURY, 1890-1905: ZOOPHISIOGNOMY AS THE INSTRUMENT OF VISUAL RHETORIC

Abstract

The article researches political caricatures that was published by the RussianEmpire magazines and newspapers during the period since 1890 until 1905. Special object of study is complex of caricatures where image of the Strange was zoomorphically presented and the Strange itself was another country (people) such as Germany, Great Britain, Austrian-Hungary Empire, Japan, Turkey. There is described no concrete caricature in the paper because iconography of the Strange is implied that the images are common for all satiric and humoristic media-resources including foreign ones. According to the article, showing the anthropomorphic person as animal (bestie) is the trope of the visual rhetoric and caricature is its genre. Despite some variation in representations, the main zoomorphic images of States are still used in caricature and other genres of mass culture. These visual markers are the lion for Great Britain, the bear for Russia, the rooster for France, the dragon for China, and the bald eagle for the US. The attached illustrations allow the reader to see how the principles described in the article were implemented in practice.