Newspaper Cartoons Related to the Current Serbian Political Scene from the Perspective of the Conceptual Blending Theory

Abstract

The paper explores newspaper cartoons (primarily those characterized by the interplay of image and text) related to the current Serbian political scene (the first half of 2009) in view of the conceptual blending theory. It first outlines the basic tenets of the given theory (which attempts to explain the process of novel, short-lived, often unique, highly context-dependent, dynamic construction of meaning, as opposed to the conceptual metaphor theory, which it complements). Then it moves on to investigate the explanatory potential of the given theory with regard to the material explored (excerpted from the daily newspapers Politika, Blic and Danas), and attempts to provide a possible classification of the given material along the lines set by the given theory.

Keywords: conceptual blending theory, conceptual metaphor theory, single scope blends, double scope blends, newspaper cartoons