The representation of learned girls, emancipated women on caricatures during dualism in Hungary

Abstract

This article provides an overview about the representation of learned girls, emancipated women on caricatures in the press, during dualism in Hungary, with international outlook. The study starts with historiographical introduction on the iconographic researches (on international and Hungarian researches, and on researches at the University of Pécs). This is followed by a brief presentation on the possibilities use of the visual sources in researching of women’s history and history of female education. The author gives a characterization of the genre of caricature too. The study focuses on visual and textual presentation of the fashionable, emancipated and learned women, and the results of the analysis of the source show that while the learned woman was gaining ground in modernizing society at end of 19th century, beyond of her old, taditional roles, men-creators of these caricatures portrayed negatively the new results of female emancipation.