1. Objective: To investigate the key role of political cartoons in contemporary discourse on the Russian-Ukrainian war, with particular emphasis on how intertextuality and visual analogies function in political cartoons as instruments of information warfare.
The dataset demonstrates how political cartoons draw on cultural memory, intertextuality (Roland Barthes, Julia Kristeva), and transtextuality (Gérard Genette) to connect the scenarios depicted with broader geopolitical issues and to enhance their narrative depth. The study combines Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) with semiotic theory.
2.Dataset: The units of analysis comprise 12 political cartoons. The material represents the following source domains: photography (2), art and street art (2), film and animation (2), religion (3), and literature (2). These domains form part of broader sources of visual analogies, namely (a) contemporary popular culture and (b) historical events, notable figures, and classic literary and artistic works.
3.Sampling criteria: Satirical works addressing the Russian-Ukrainian war and employing visual analogies, cultural memory, or intertextual references.
4.Time frame: 2022–2025
Figure 1. Joe Rosenthal (USA)
Press photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima (1945)
Figure 2.1. Volodymyr Kazanevsky (Ukraine)
Political cartoon (adaptation of the Iwo Jima motif)
Figure 2.2. Alexandr Troitsky (Russia)
Political cartoon (adaptation of the Iwo Jima motif)
Figure 3.1. / 4 Honoré Daumier (France)
Lithograph The Dream of the Inventor of the Needle-Gun... (1866)
Figure 3.2. / 5 Rainer Hachfeld (Germany)
Political cartoon Actualités
Figure 4.1. / 6AGO (Germany)
Political cartoon depicting the Bucha massacre
Figure 4.2. / 7Dmitri Vrubel (Russia)
Graffiti on the Berlin Wall (My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love, 1990)
Figure 5.1. Andriy Petrenko (Ukraine)
Political cartoon (Winnie-the-Pooh / Xi Jinping and Putin)
Figure 5.2. / 9 Dimitris Hantzopoulos (Greece)
Political cartoon Battleship Putinmkin
Figure 6. Olexiy Kustovsky (Ukraine)
Political cartoon referencing The Last Supper
Figure 7. Ahmad Rahma (Turkey)
Political cartoon (Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the NATO cross)
Figure 8. Marian Kamensky (Austria)
Satirical cartoon (The Birth of the Antichrist)
Figure 9.1. Dragan Kovasevic (Croatia)
Political cartoon referencing Shakespeare's Hamlet
Figure 9.2. Paolo Lombardi (Italy)
Political cartoon referencing Cervantes' Don Quixote
