Britannia : Grandeur et infortune d’une allégorie nationale dans l’univers du cartoon britannique 1842-1999

Britannia, sometimes accompanied by the emblematic British Lion, has long been personifying justice, liberty, and the British Empire on coins and stamps as well as in graphic satire. Originally of Roman origin, she became the visual representation of Britain after being revived in the sixteenth century. This article is based on the analysis of over four hundred cartoons featuring this symbol. It argues that between 1860 and the 1950s, Britannia striking a solemn pose, that of the Græco-Roman goddess created by Tenniel, exalted Victorian greatness and the early twentieth century great power twice victorious in the World Wars. On the other hand, since the inter-war years, Low and his followers had been challenging this supposedly immutable image. They turned her into a definitely helpless and obsolete symbol whose identity was sometimes usurped by such anti-heroes as Colonel Blimp. Finally, from the 1960s, in a context of continuous British decline and growing permissiveness, cartoonists increasingly followed the example of the old masters of 18th century caricature and early Punch cartoonists, even though aggressiveness and vulgarity have remained much less explicit