The case of

Greater Hungary

Zsuzsanna Bacsa Palmer

ENGL 806

Maps as Ideological Tools in the New Media Age

Ubiquity of the image

Timeline

WWI WWII 1989

Lines

Boundaries

Colors

Territories

Creating a country

The authoritative power of maps

Drawing

a line

Semiotic analysis

Sign: the map- a (red) border line in a certain shape (‘Meaning’)Signified: The territory of Hungary before WWI

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Sign: The map of Greater Hungary (‘Form’)Signified: The Greatness/ Endurance/ Nostalgia/ Revisionism etc. of

Hungary (‘Concept’)

“The level of connotation of the visual sign (…) is the point where already coded signs intersect with the deep semantic codes of a culture and take on additional, more

active ideological dimensions.“(Hall, 1980, p. 112).

“If one wishes to connect a mythical schema to a general history, to explain how it corresponds to the interest of a definite society, in short, to pass from semiology

to ideology, it is obviously at the level of the third type of focusing that one must place oneself: it is the reader of myths himself who must reveal their essential function”

(Barthes, 1972, p. 129).

1st

Level

2ndLevelMythology/Connotation

Questionnaire results

Connotations

Meanings

When describing to others what Greater Hungary means how important would the following meanings be in your description?

Questionnaire results

Three re-encodings of the same image

References

Barthes, R. (1972). Mythologies. New York: Hill and Wang.Car with Greater Hungary Sticker [Online Image] (2010) Retrieved April 11, 2011 from Origo

http://www.origo.hu/auto/20100514-milyen-kocsikkal-erkeztek-a-parlamenti-nyitasra-a-politikusok.htmlClock –Greater Hungary [Online imagae] (n.d.) Retrieved April 12, 2011 from Alkupiac http://alkupiac.hu/termekek/18399_kaurifa-

faliora-tortenelmi-nagy-magyarorszagDeathskull (2010) Nagy Magyarorszag Greater Hungary Mozilla Firefox Persona. Retreived April 10, 2011 from Mozilla Firefox

Personas Gallery http://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/persona/297219Greater Hungary with counties [Online image] (n.d.) Retrieved April 11, 2011 from Nagy Magyarorszag Tajai

http://www.magyarorszag-szep.hu/Greater Hungary Magnet [Online image] (n.d.) Retrieved April 8, 2011 from http://www.hutomagnesbolt.hu/Greater Hungary before WWI (Online image] (n.d.) Retrieved April 16, 2011 from

http://www.antikregiseg.hu/kep_ajandek.php?nev=nagy-magyarorszag_terkepek_nagy-magyarorszag_terkepe_1821_magyar_nyelvu_terkep_156&id=_1

Hall, S. (1980). Encoding/ Decoding in Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies Culture, Media, Language: Working Papers in Cultural Studies . London: Hutchinson , pp. 128-138.

Hand Drawing a Map [Online image] Retrieved April 16, 2011 from http://handdrawnplanet.blogspot.com/Hungary Today Map [Online image} (n.d.) Retrieved April 16, 2011 from http://cograf.hu/lexikon/foldrajz/magyarorszag-

terkep.htmlHungarian Flag [Online image] (n.d.) Retrieved April 8, 2011 from

http://www.noihonlap.hu/sl/index.php?id=20&PHPSESSID=856cadfa168a0bbd9f9dc63360688beHungary during WW II {Online Image] (n.d.) Retrieved April 11, 2011 from

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Hungary_1938-1947.pngLaPanteraRosa (2007) Nagy Magyarorszag/ Greater Hungary Photo [Online image] (2007) Retrieved April 11, 2011 from Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pantera-rosa/4441129436Onesie with Greater Hungary [Online image] (n.d.) Retrieved April 12, 2011 from Shopmania

http://www.shopmania.hu/shopping~online-ferfi-ruha~vasarlas-nagy-magyarorszag-body-polo~p-4048476.htmlTria-NON map image [Screen shot] (n.d.) Retrieved April 12, 2011 from YouTube, Karpatia lesz meg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWVsrM0hqIcT-Shirt with Gretar Hungary [Online image] (n.d.) Retrieved April 8 , 2011 from http://www.turania.hu/catalog/rovidujju-

polo/galleros-polo-nagymagyarorszag-pri-1417.html?reviews_id=474Zippo lighter with Greater Hungary engraving [Online image] (n.d.) Retrieved April 12, 2011 from Alkupiac

http://alkupiac.hu/termekek/21234_150-zippo-black-ice-nagy-magyarorszag-gravirral