Strategies for compression of socio-cultural reality in a metaphorical visual blend

Abstract: This paper investigates some aspects of culturally salient and entrenched visual elements, identified as cultural stereotypes, cultural icons, and cultural symbols. An editorial cartoon is analyzed according to the network model of mental spaces from Fauconnier and Turner’s Blending Theory in order to demonstrate the importance of such visual elements in producing and unpacking conceptual blends. Cultural stereotypes, cultural icons, and cultural symbols are described as distinct strategies for compressing large and diffuse socio-cultural reality.