Unemployment Is The Law
The Representation Of Unemployment In The Judge Dredd Comics (1979-1985)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59616/cehd.v2i6.1705Keywords:
Judge Dredd, Comic Books, United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher, NeoliberalismAbstract
Originally published in 1977 in the British comic magazine 2000 A.D., Judge Dredd is the most famous comic book character in the United Kingdom. Written by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, Dredd was conceived as a satire on the rhetoric of the British Conservative Party. The character represented in its pages the authors' criticisms against the security policies of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990). However, despite the critical and satirical tone with the harsh policies against the increase in crime in the United Kingdom, the result of a massive economic and political crisis that took over the country from the 1960s onwards, Dredd also served as a vehicle for the authors' criticism. against Thatcher's economic policies that had a huge social impact on the country. Between 1979 and 1986, unemployment in the country was massive and was a constant feature on the pages of newspapers. Therefore, this work aims to analyze the political representations against the economic reforms of Margaret Thatcher and the Conservatives in the pages of Judge Dredd's stories.
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