Resisting Through Languages: Dāriǧah and Caricature in Contemporary Tunisia
in La rivista di Arablit, a. X, n. 20, dicembre 2020, pp. 45-78.
The genesis of graphic literature in the Arab world has its roots in twentieth-century Egypt and Lebanon, which are the main focus of recent academic studies on comics and cartoons (Jacquemond 2008). However, also Maghrib, and particularly Tunisia, boast some relevant independent artists and collectives. This paper aims at analysing some caricatures contained in the book Khalti Khadhra by Mohamed Doggui (2017) and some other cartoons taken from the writer’s and Anis Mahrsi’s Facebook pages. The relationship between the linguistic code (Tunisian dāriǧah) and the visual code (cartoons) will be analysed, emphasizing the role of Tunisian Arabic as a language of a written culture, accessible to a vast audience thanks to the use of their mother tongue and the web, and a means of resistance expressing all the contradictions of the post-revolutionary Tunisia.