A Stylistic Reading of the Satirical Import in Selected Punch Newspaper Political Cartoons

Failure to view stylistics as a bridge discipline linking literary criticism and linguistics communication which is fundamental to human development is a disconnect which has negatively imparted the meaning retrieval in cartoons. This is because language goes beyond spoken and written form to encompass; sign, body, grimace, gestures and the other paralinguistic forms of communication. Using the qualitative analytic method and a framework model propounded by Earl Robert Babbie (1998), which holds that systemic functional grammar “is a systematic inquiry to describe, explain, predict and control the observed phenomenon”, the study analyzed two political cartoons of The Punch newspaper selected using the purposive sampling technique. Findings showed that appropriate application of stylistics to cartoons is key to linguistics communication which is fundamental to human development, interaction and co-existence. The study concludes among others that cartoon should be seen as a viable and powerful tool in the dispensation of critical and sensitive message especially where the ills of the ruling power are concerned. Keywords: Cartoons, criticism, linguistics, stylistics and systemic functional grammar. DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/9-14-04 Publication date:July 31st 201