A Linguistic and Literary Analyses of Selected Cartoons on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

Abstract

The world is currently facing a global pandemic, named COVID-19, which is seriously wreaking a devastating blow on the world healthcare system. Since the first index case was reported in Lagos, Nigeria, in February, the federal and state governments have put measures in place to curtail the spread of the virus in the country. Some of the measures include the constitution of the presidential task force (PTF), provision of isolation and treatment centres for confirmed cases, and pronouncement of lockdown order by the president and some state governors. Amidst these measures, cartoonists (artists, or authors in literary context) have taken to the media to creatively present humorous and satirical depictions of the pandemic and social realities in the fight against it. This study thus analyses the humorous and satirical depiction of the pandemic in the Nigerian context using selected cartoons. These cartoons can be classified as graphic literary texts that can be subjected to different interpretations. The cartoons/texts are selected from the Facebook pages of popular Nigerian cartoonists/authors. A total of 10 cartoons/texts were randomly selected between March and April 2020. The study adopts two models/theories in interpreting the cartoons: Suls's incongruity resolution (IR) model operationalizes linguistic tool of lexicalization, re-lexicalisation, and shared sociocultural knowledge to explicate humour and satire in the cartoons, and Structuralism, which requires human behaviour (as represented in texts or cartoons) to be understood in the context of a broad social system (otherwise called structures) in which they exist. The study observed that the cartoons are not just independent texts or images but that they are products of the Nigerian social condition. It equally revealed that the cartoonists have deployed verbal and non-verbal incongruity to present comical images that show beliefs of Nigerians about the pandemic and the level of the country's preparedness in flattening the curve of the contraction of the virus.