06 Employment of Humour: Ridicule and Revilement of Muslim Woman

Abstract

This article uses the lens of the General Theory of Verbal Humour (Raskin, Hempelmann, & Taylor 2009) to examine the patterns of humour created in the selected sample of five E-media cartoons disseminated on the World Wide Web in the year 2017. Due to the hybrid nature of the sample, the critical terminology introduced by Kukkonen (2013) for studying comics and graphic novels has been employed to study the representation of a veiled Muslim woman in the cartoons. Owing to the increased importance of electronic media the (re)production of discursive image of Muslim woman and her veil as an icon of stereotypical representation needs to be critically examined for perpetuating stereotypes. This practice, which is a unique kind of oppression, deprives a Muslim woman from following the dress code of her choice and marginalises the women who consider veil a form of empowerment freeing them from the …