I’ve always found comic strips similar to Mafalda interesting because of the variety of readers they can appeal to. Both children and adults can enjoy them and get different meanings from the text, and Mafalda seems to be quite similar. However, what Mafalda seems to focus on is the middle class of Argentina, and in doing so we as readers can get a better idea of the culture that the middle class in Argentina lived in. Like Cosse said, the comics brought to light the social, political, and economic issues that were unique to the burgeoning middle class, and in doing so we can learn a lot about what matters to a culture, and what sets them apart. As well as the use of humor in exploring social dynamics and identities.
For the first page of the Mafalda comics, I had a hard time fully understanding the concepts, possibly the humor was lost in translation. But in particular, there were two that caught my attention. Number 4 and 5 on page 2, the first which I believe was a humorous look at the more progressive aspects of middle-class social thoughts on gender roles, and the conflicts that still occur in society with these new interpretations. And the second, which I can relate to my own family experiences in many ways of the generational divide when it comes to patterns of consumption, especially in the case of the father in the comic who probably did not grow up middle class.
Taken from our readings. “humor operates ‘‘in a sociopositive way to solidify a group’’ and favors ‘‘social self-reflection.’’
Along with humor, what are some other aspects of social life that you believe can operate in similar ways? Possibly there are some in the previous topics we discussed.
Hi!
Great post 🙂
To answer your question, I think anything that tries to reflect society operates in a similar way to humour. For example, tragedy. Tragedy is the opposite of humour, yet it essentially does the same thing. It highlights an aspect (usually a flaw) in society and forces the audience to react to it.
Hi! I really enjoyed reading your post. In terms of your question I believe that along with humour, mutual hardships can operate in a similar way. This creates a sense of relatedness similar to that we see in humour connecting people and stories. Bringing fourth even a sense of empathy for a character if they’ve been in a similar situation or those emotions resurfacing.