Political cartoons as rhetorical form: A taxonomy of graphic discourse

This essay is a taxonomic study of the available means of graphic persuasion as manifested in the art of political cartooning. The authors argue that the neo‐classical canons of rhetoric, slightly modified, provide an adequate superstructure for the production and criticism of graphic discourse. It is further argued that the specific techniques which grow out of the application of the canons reveal significant differences between the means of persuasion available to the graphic artist and those available to the oral persuader. These differences of technique arise from the nature of the medium and force a reconceptualization of the canons of memory and delivery as applied to non‐oratorical forms in general and graphic persuasion in particular.