Cartoons and Antisemitism: Visual Politics of Interwar Poland Ewa Stanczyk 9781496851505

Antisemitic caricatures had existed in Polish society since at least the mid-nineteenth century. But never had the devastating impacts of this imagery been fully realized or so blatantly apparent than on the eve of the Second World War. In Cartoons and Antisemitism: Visual Politics of Interwar Poland, scholar Ewa Stanczyk explores how illustrators conceived of Jewish people in satirical drawing and reflected on the burning political questions of the day. Incorporating hundreds of cartoons, satirical texts, and newspaper articles from the 1930s, Stanczyk investigates how a visual culture that was essentially hostile to Jews penetrated deep and wide into Polish print media. In her sensitive analysis of these sources, the first of this kind in English, the author examines how major satirical magazines intervened in the ongoing events and contributed to the racialized political climate of the time.

Paying close attention to the antisemitic tropes that were both local and global, Stanczyk reflects on the role of pictorial humor in the transmission of visual antisemitism across historical and geographical borders. As she discusses the communities of artists, publishers, and political commentators who made up the visual culture of the day, Stanczyk tells a captivating story of people who served the antisemitic cause, and those who chose to oppose it.

About the Author
Ewa Stanczyk is assistant professor in East European Studies at the University of Amsterdam. She is author of Comics and Nation: Power, Pop Culture, and Political Transformation in Poland and editor of Comic Books, Graphic Novels and the Holocaust.


Book Information
ISBN 9781496851505
Author Ewa Stanczyk
Format Paperback
Page Count 277
Imprint University Press of Mississippi
Publisher University Press of Mississippi