El lápiz como arma: la respuesta del humor gráfico al atentado terrorista contra «Charlie Hebdo»

El presente artículo analiza la respuesta del humor gráfico al atentado terrorista del 7 de enero de 2015 contra las oficinas del semanario satírico francés Charlie Hebdo. En concreto, el artículo realiza un análisis semiótico de una serie de piezas relacionadas con este suceso y recopiladas a través de Internet. Los textos visuales y verbovisuales analizados evidencian la condena del ataque terrorista y la defensa de la libertad de expresión, representada en la mayoría de casos por la imagen del lápiz como herramienta de lucha contra el terrorismo y símbolo de los valores democráticos.

The Danish Cartoons, Charlie Hebdo and the culture wars: satiric limits in comparative national and transnational perspectives

A considerable body of academic literature has lauded political satirists as rebellious defenders of democracy and free speech against an establishment. Although satire is not always rebellious, this reputation of satirists and of satire may itself be the object of partisan capture. In this article, it is the object of capture by right-wing populists. In that respect, satire and the meta-discourse about satire can be used like any political rhetoric in gathering like-minded allies, claiming standards, and fighting opponents. With the Danish cartoons crisis of 2005-2006 and the Charlie Hebdo massacre of 2015, proponents of culture wars rhetoric added satire to their list of Western cultural legacies that needed defence against Islamic terrorism as well as left authoritarian elites who suppressed free speech through political correctness. They constructed simplistic global political dichotomies about satire, free speech, and civilisation and lifted events out of local contexts in a process of global framing. The culture war rhetoric was absolutist in support of free speech and satire on the international level. But the national level reveals the hortatory and partisan side to this rhetoric and the complexities that belie the absolutist stand. Nations are the arenas where struggles over free speech and political humour are played out.

Sobrevivir a la barbarie: el cómic como tabla de salvación frente al terrorismo yihadista

Este artículo analiza cómo la novela gráfica es un medio particularmente apto para dejar constancia de un acontecimiento violento, para contar el trauma, como modo de expresión catártico y vía de comunicación política. Lo hace a través del análisis de Catharsis de Luz (2015) y La légèreté de Catherine Meurisse (2016), dos dibujantes de la redacción de Charlie Hebdo que, por motivos opuestos, llegaron tarde a la conferencia del 7 de enero de 2015 y fueron testigos auditivos de la masacre. El análisis narrativo y gráfico viene precedido por una breve historia del semanario y de las controversias que generó, que permite entender mejor el alcance de las dos obras.

2. Blasphemy in scarequotes

‘Blasphemy in scarequotes’ examines contemporary blasphemy cases where ‘blasphemy’ is a smokescreen for realpolitik. ‘Blasphemy’ prosecutions were often an attack on ‘secularism’, and all the sexually and politically dangerous views that often went with it. It is worth considering the story of Naboth’s vineyard in the Bible and the blasphemy charges against the politician Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, journalism student Mashal Khan, artist and poet Ashraf Fayadh, the band Pussy Riot, Aasiya Noreen, as well as Jesus and Socrates. Important in this discussion are both the Charlie Hebdo murders and the establishment of new norms of freedom of religion and freedom from religion as a result of secularist activism.

Uma análise crítico-discursiva da polarização Ocidente/Oriente na polêmica sobre o ataque à revista Charlie Hebdo

Este artigo é baseado na polêmica entre liberdade de expressão versus limites éticos para a prática do humor, que foi suscitado com o atentado à revista Charlie Hebdo, em 2015, buscando no escopo da Análise Crítica do Discurso, de Teun van Dijk (1998, 2005, 2015, 2016), e da Teoria da Polêmica, de Ruth Amossy (2017), indagar como as formas de apresentação e qualificação dos atores envolvidos interferem no debate e reacendem a polarização e posicionamentos entre Ocidentais e Orientais no discurso jornalístico brasileiro. A partir de análise de excertos de nove textos da Folha de S. Paulo, publicados logo após o ataque em 2015, analisamos a polarização entre grupos e as estratégias de descrição de atores envolvidos: por um lado, terroristas, muçulmanos (Orientais), que praticaram o atentado, e, por outro, vítimas (Ocidentais). Os resultados deste trabalho permitem observar a semântica eurocêntrica e a assimetria na cobertura desse acontecimento, que podem servir à análise de outros fatos violentos e recentes que dizem respeito à produção do humor, como também atualizam aspectos do discurso eurocêntrico na contemporaneidade a partir de uma articulação teórica inovadora.

Anti-sociologisme, Zionism, and Islamophobia in Philippe Val’s Charlie Hebdo

In this article, I examine Charlie Hebdo, under the editorship of Philippe Val from 1994 to 2005, and how it reported on themes related to Islam and Muslims, both in France and abroad, particularly in relation to the satanic breasts controversy and the Hebron massacre in 1994, the Kosovo war, 9/11, and the 2005 banlieues riots in France. I argue that despite the plurality of voices within the magazine, Val succeeded through his editorial line to establish and promote a link between antisemitism and Muslims and produce a narrative that harbours Islamophobia. By conflating Arabs and Muslims, pro-Palestinianism and postcolonialism, and by arguing that anti-Semitism is inherent in Islam, Val sowed the first seeds of Islamophobia in Charlie Hebdo’s editorial line as early as 1994. This reached its culmination first in 9/11 then in the Mohamed caricatures, and has consistently and irreversibly continued to shape the magazine’s ethos.

Imaginaires de l’identité collective au prisme d’événements sidérants

"This paper analyses the ingroup identity which emerges through three events, the Cologne attacks in January 2016, the attacks against the Charlie Hebdo journalists in January 2015 and the Yellow Vests’ demonstrations in France from November 2018 to 2019. It focuses on the images and fictions which are performed by the citizens as well as those which appear through the reactions of academics, journalists and politicians in media. It aims at revealing the accommodation of political myths and the way the representations of collective identity are built."

France’s Ahmeds and Muslim others: The entanglement of racism and Islamophobia

In this article, I use the example of Ahmed Merabet, a Muslim and Algerian-origin police officer who was one of the victims of the January 2015 Charlie Hebdo massacre, as a way to understand how Islamophobia is a form of racism. Based on ethnographic research in Paris and its banlieues with the middle-class segment of the North African second generation, I discuss how they experience ‘collective punishment’ due to their status as both racial and religious minorities. I further trace the use of a ‘Muslim other’ category as a catch-all term for non-White individuals in a society that disavows race and ethnicity. I ultimately demonstrate how Islamophobia is a form of racism – one that sees certain individuals as too culturally different to ever be fully accepted as part of the French mainstream.