Abstract:
Study of a caricature as a historical source needs its specific approach. Our paper will pay attention
to some aspects of methodology and discussion will be based on empirical British material about
Georgia. British cartoon archive was created by University of Kent and material for the study is taken
from it. Georgia captures caricaturists’ attention in British press several times. 25 cartoons are stored
herein total. They are dated back to 1956, 1988-91, 1998, 2005, 2008 and 2014. Independent variable
concerning Georgian topic may be established, namely international relations, mostly Russian-Georgian relationships
and the USA-Georgian relationships. Specific topic is a dependent variable – the urgent topic
is the more cartoons are dedicated to it. Majority of cartoons belong to the ‘cartoons of opinion’. Only
few of them are joke cartoons. Their function is to represent political attitude and opinion therefore
they are less funny which is quite characteristic to political cartoons. All artists are British and as a
result more or less objective concerning Russian-Georgian relationships. They represent the attitude of
the west at a specific time concerning the specific topic. Bear is used as synecdochical allegory and a
symbol of Russia. Other symbols have random characters, for example playing ball as a symbol of
Georgia. Intended function of these cartoons was to inform the British, transfer opinion, therefore they
must seem less funny and less witty. August war was the most urgent topic for British cartoonists. Thus,
all cartoons related to Georgia are discussed in the paper.
