The Charro as a Humorous Rural Stereotype in Mexico in the 1920s

At the beginning of the 20th century, the charro, a traditional figure from the rural world, emerged on the Mexican cultural scene as a relevant stereotype. In the following years, the charro transformed into a national personification of Mexico, especially once it became a key figure of Mexican cinema and mariachi music. Notwithstanding this fact, its trajectory was more convoluted than it seems, and different versions of the character coexisted at least until the 1920s. Whereas the charro was usually represented as an attractive and seductive man, there was also a comic version, portrayed as an overweight or unkempt man with a provincial mentality. The characters played by the comic performer Leopoldo Beristáin and the protagonists of Sunday comic strips, such as Don Catarino and Mamerto Albondiguilla, were some examples of the latter. While the positive interpretation of the charro ended up prevailing as the main iteration of the character, the comic depictions of this stereotype show the rejection and contempt that the urban population felt for a rural world that had invaded the Mexican capital as a result of the revolution—a world perceived as provincial, backward, and laughable, an idea that would dominate foreign and national imageries of Mexico.

The Extent at Which Undergraduate Students Use the Internet for Reading

This study aims to investigate the extent at which undergraduate students use the internet for reading. The study specifically, (i) Examine the extent at which undergraduate students use the internet for reading, (ii) Investigate the difference on the extent of the use of internet for reading of male and female undergraduate students, (iii) Examine the difference of extent of the internet usage on reading of undergraduate students based on areas of specialization. The study was a descriptive research of survey type. A structured questionnaire designed by the researcher was used in data collection. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 150 respondents that were involved in this study from the University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria. Frequency count, mean and percentages were used to answer the research questions. Hypothesis one was tested with independent t-test while hypothesis two was tested using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). All hypothesis were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The findings established that Undergraduates always use the internet for reading online news, E books, Email, Health information, Jokes, Comic strips, Fashion, Food/Nutrition and Sales information. Also, there was no significant difference between the extent of the internet usage on reading of undergraduate students based on gender and areas of specialization. It was however recommended that there is a need for extensive training program organized at regular interval so that all categories of users can improve their efficiency in the use of the internet.

Graphic Communities: Comics as Visual and Virtual Resources for Self- and Collective Care

Note: this commentary is intended for the special issue, "Comics in and of The Moment." Abstract: This essay discusses the ways in which print and web comics are used to represent the lived experiences of mental illness. Beginning with a brief overview of mental health-focused comic strips and graphic memoirs and turning to a discussion of the mental illness comics of Instagram, the article outlines how comics are being used as platforms for self- and collective care. Instead of prioritizing a visual/discourse analysis of each web comic, this piece focuses on the comment threads of each Instagram post and examines the conversations which develop amongst users. By doing so, this essay begins a critical discussion of the ways in which comics may be used as mental health resources. While grounded in a discussion of Covid-19-related increases to mental illness symptoms, this piece is also interested in how comics may be used as therapeutic supports in a post-pandemic world.

Magazines for Women

Women’s magazines had a dual aim in the period, providing fiction and other forms of entertainment reading and offering practical advice about childcare, cookery and household management. They also nurtured skills including knitting and dressmaking, offering designs for clothes for children and themselves. Pictorial covers presented both the twin aims, through precise wording of contents matched by images offering more attractive ways of living. Fiction combined image and text in advancing or delaying events, and often making moral points. Woman’s Life in the 1920s matched these aims with illustrated fiction mingling escape and guidance: it also included occasional comic strips for young children. The more expensive Woman and Home attracted readers from a slightly higher income bracket but covered similar material. Launched in 1932, Woman’s Own used the newer forms of printing and design, reflecting greater confidence of its readers and newer material including film reviews.

Religiöse Spuren im Alltag

Acronyms, songs, advertisements, movies, television series, comic strips, memes or even sports news: Traces of Christian symbols, sayings, or references can be found in numerous places and contexts. But most children and adolescents exposed to religious education in German schools, only know these contemporary references without being aware of their origins. So one of the most challenging tasks in religious education is enabling learners to decode those references and adaptations. Being able to decode the occurring transformations of religion within these daily life phenomena is the prerequisite for being able to make an informed decision about the underlying concepts and religious ideas. This article provides an example of how to alternatively address the quite abstract teaching of dyophysitism by using snippets of the famous animated sitcom „The Simpsons“.

Keep the thread up! From humour to poetry. Silence as a spur to read and speak

The purpose of this article is to proceed with a semiotic examination of several wordless picturebooks focussed on the use of a thread, Considering that it is the visual image which first and foremost prompts the meaning in iconotexts, we shall deal with it more particularly through the examination of two French picturebooks: the first one by Robert Scouvart, Histoire d’un fil (The Story of a Thread, Magnard 1990) shows how a single thread can magically delineate different characters introduced in an alluring play on words. The book will offer a distanced staging of the reading process through a humorous use of stereotypes close to those resorted to in comic strips. In the second part of my presentation we shall deal with Boutique Tic Tic, (Shop Pop Pop) by Frédéric Clément, (Albin Michel Jeunesse, 2018) a poetical description introduced under the aesthetic spell of Lewis Carrol’s The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland, as suggested by the image of the white rabbit winking from a globe on the cover page. The book in the end will tell how a magical thread can unexpectedly and poetically have a « golden voice » during « a long minute of silence of Big Ben »… An original achievement fully illustrating Sandra Becket’s declaration that « the ‘interactive’ and ‘cinematic’ qualities of similar productions [...] make them books for the ‘digital age.’ (2012, p. 99) Keywords: the magic thread, album without words, Histoire d'un fil, Boutique Tic Tic, humour, poetry.

THE USE OF LINE WEBTOON COMIC STRIPS TO UPGRADE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY MASTERY

Vocabulary is the key for the learners’ language change in learning as a foreign language including English. However, Indonesian students still have problems in vocabulary building, particularly to memorize meaning of new words. This fact implies that they need effective ways to learn vocabulary. It would be more beneficial to use an effective vocabulary teaching technique to help the students in upgrading their vocabulary mastery. The use of relevant media in teaching vocabulary will also boost student’s motivation. The aim of this study was to reveal how Line Webtoon comic can be used to teach vocabulary, the student’s vocabulary mastery, and the student’s responses toward the use of Webtoon comic. The participants in this study were ninth-grade students and their English teacher. This research applied qualitative design. The data was gathered through observation during online learning in Google Classroom, student’s task and the interview process. Based on the data, the process of using Line Webtoon for ninth graders was successfully upgraded the students’ vocabulary mastery and motivation to read through online comic. It also showed that the students were interested to read because Webtoon consisted of many pictures and they were able to get many new words by using online media.

The Visualized Employment Contract. An exploratory study on contract visualization in Danish employment contracts

The essence of any employment contract should be a clear and understandable communication of the employment relationship. Using comics as a medium for employment contracts can help in achieving this goal. This article provides an exploratory case study in the context of Danish labour law. In a first step, it is assessed whether an employment contract made of comic strips would meet the formal requirements of Danish and European labour law. In a second step, the textual and comic versions of the employment contract of a Danish leisure organization are tested on two volunteer groups. The results show that both the personal utility and actionable knowledge of the users of comic contracts increased significantly compared to the users of the textual version of the contract. This provides initial evidence that contract visualization with the help of comic strips can be an important component in the reform and re-imagination of labour markets and labour law that are undergoing a fundamental transformation.