The Rhetoric of Argumentative Discourse in Caricatures: Violence against Women as an Example

The current study aimed to be a starting point and reach more encouraging results towards attracting interest to the issue of constructing arguments and their structural patterns within the caricature discourse, taking into account the patterns of both the linguistic and iconic aspects of the caricature message. It is further intended to search for how to build relationships between arguments and drawings using examining the strategies, mechanisms, and types of argumentation that were employed within the drawing that dealt with the discourse of violence against women. However, the study is limited to the visual discourse represented by the caricature drawing of the artist “Doaa Al-Adl”, as she holds the Medal for Combating Violence against Women, and is the author of a book entitled “Fifty Drawings and More about Women”, through which she observed the suffering of women and the various forms of violence to which they are exposed; thus, four drawings were selected from the book due to the different connotations and arguments that these drawings carry for the different forms and methods of violence.                                                                      
The study revealed the richness of non-linguistic sign patterns. All drawings can be seen as built via a logical theorem that states:                                                                         
Women are oppressed.                                                   
The oppressed will perish. 
Women will perish.                                                         
This is the ultimate objective that the discourse attempted to establish in all the images under study to attract the addressees and, then, direct them toward a specific behavior.
Therefore, the discourse becomes more effective since the artist tried greatly to bridge the rift between the semantic gaps and the immediate images seen. This is meant to reach channels of persuasion, especially since they derive their legitimacy as being issues that have sectarian and social references which eventually lead to the addressee's approval. It is also fixed in the collective consciousness through the use of images that call for inciting and provoking the addressee towards a specific action so that the addressee may refuse to accept or submit to the cause being presented, especially when the argument works extensively in such cases that are related to a rebellious action or controversial issues.
- The producer of the discourse attempted to employ horizontal rhetorical methods, which were largely manifested in antithesis; the antithesis sought to clarify the severity of the claim being presented, aiming to provoke the recipient and capture their attention, pushing them towards a specific behavior and action.
- The antithesis aimed to elevate the communicative purpose of the message by playing with long and short lines, as well as exploring the psychological connotations within the iconic formal sign. The discourse producer was able to employ color as an important argumentative link by presenting it in the form of relational repetition; repetition serves to highlight and clarify the idea, and it is most effective when this repetition manifests in the motif of color that becomes entrenched in the recipient's mind and does not fade away.
- The images came in a structured and escalating argumentative framework aimed at convincing, attracting, and inciting the recipient to a specific action.
- The producer did not only rely on horizontal rhetorical methods but also drew from vertical methods as a support for establishing a specific intended thought, including metaphorical imagery through the use of figurative language in its dimensions and relations.
- The text producer attempted to utilize lines within the panels to support the basis of antithesis, a significant argumentative technique that helps to highlight and establish the concept; for a thing is only clear through its opposite, which aids in emphasizing the idea within the recipient's mind.
- The study sought to explore the image of women in the context of violence in its various forms by applying the mechanism of argumentation and the rhetorical methods indicative of the connection within the discourse.                            
The study recommended the need to be open to the authenticity of other visual arts, such as comics, cartoons, and conceptual photography, as well as the significance of researchers addressing the importance of interdisciplinary studies because they have a great impact on interpreting various discourses, especially about the field of modern rhetoric and mass media.