“GIVE US THE MONEY!”

THE FIGURATIVE REPRESENTATION OF EU SUBSIDIES TO HUNGARY IN POLITICAL CARTOONS

Ágnes Virág

Institute of Fine Arts and Art Theory, Eszterházy Károly Catholic University, Eger, Hungary

Abstract

In international political cartoons (politicalcartoons.com), the cartoonish figure of the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, is most likely to appear together with the representation of the EU. Their juxtaposed depiction usually involves the issue of corruption. The paper aims to investigate in what metaphorical depictions the EU and EU-subsidies appear in connection with the cartoonish representation of Viktor Orbán in the corpus. Additionally, it also examines what characteristic features are shown by these metaphorical representations in connection to the collocated representation of the EU and the figure of Viktor Orbán. Based on previous research, it is hypothesised that both the EU and Viktor Orbán are abstract, complex concepts that are prone to metaphorical representation and that, due to the significant difference in power relations, one of them will be exaggerated or downplayed.     

Keywords: Conceptual metaphor; Political cartoon; Corruption; EU; Viktor Orbán.

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How to cite this article: Virág, Á. (2024). “Give us the money!” The figurative representation of EU subsidies to Hungary in political cartoons. Journal of Linguistic and Intercultural Education – JoLIE, 17(2), 119-151. Doi: https://doi.org/10.29302/jolie.2024.17.2.9

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