Transmutations

Transmutations is the first book-length study of caricature as both a literary and visual phenomenon. By employing an interdisciplinary approach, Professor Rivers identifies the mechanisms of caricature, analyzes how they work, and examines the reader/viewer's role in the creation and interpretation of caricature. Many of the examples used in the text are from the works of Balzac and Daumier, but caricatures, cartoons, and comic strips of a variety of cultures and eras are offered as well. Also included is the first comprehensive and international bibliography of caricature. Contents: Preliminary Considerations: Problems, Definitions, Goals; Part One: DistortionoThe Disfigurement of the Norm; Part Two: TransmutationoThe Rhetoric of Caricature; Part Three: ContextoThe Matrix of Caricature; Conclusion: The Ideology of Caricature.