Wire on Covers

• Main Author: Gordana Čupković
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Zadar 2020-12-01
• Series: [sic]
• Online Access: http://www.sic-journal.org/ArticleView.aspx?aid=636

This paper analyzes the covers of the weekly newspaper Novosti, on which the current refugee and migrant crisis is depicted with illustrations where various verbal and visual signs recontextualize the motif of barbed and razor wire. The symbolic, satiric, and metaphoric potential of barbed wire is discussed, and its functions in the narrative on migrants are defined. The examples are categorized according to the distinct semantic characteristics of acting on the body and enclosing space, and the presented research model confirms that the pronounced artistic and critical functionality of the motif of barbed wire lies precisely in the potential of establishing an antithesis that is simultaneously also an element of the satirical dialectic and the source of metaphoric interpretations. Keywords: barbed wire, satire, symbol, conceptual metaphor, semanticsWriting a summary for the history of barbed wire, from the prairies and war trenches to concentration camps, Razac (2009) stops at the control points of contemporary urbanism, where virtual surveillance is implemented through a sophisticated selection of social characteristics, implying a gradual but complete transformation of physical wire into a collection of virtual nodes. However, the circumstances of Western military interventions in the Middle East, the related Middle East wars, and the consequent waves of refugees and migrants have in the meantime revitalized the use of barbed wire in the heart of Western civilization and, furthermore, in all three historically acknowledged dispositives: the enclosure of one’s own, the enclosure of others, and the cross-linking of the space in-between. Wire has over time shown itself as a more resilient and efficient material than walls and ramparts due to its mobility (it is easy to install and remove) and, which is especially important, does not leave any traces after its removal, and this constitutes a particularly significant element of redesigning history and collective memory: “concentration camps are not built to last” (Razac 57) or “it was all music.” The dynamism and the impermanence emphasize the time (and the metaphorical) aspect over the spatial aspect, while the repeatability of occurrence emphasizes certain archetypal meanings.