Tintin and Contemporary Politics

Tintin
and contemporary politics
Tintin Conference

University College, London
10th January 2014

Subhayan Mukerjee
mail@subhayan.com
Subhayan Mukerjee / blog.subhayan.com

Two objectives
●

A chronological look at 20th
century politics through Tintin’s
adventures
○
○
○

●

Before the Second World War
During the Second World War
After the Second World War

A look at other “political” issues
○
○
○

Tintin as an ideal European hero
Tintin and human rights
Tintin and sexism


Before the
second world war

Tintin’s first appearance
He boards a train to the Soviet Union in Le Petit Vingtième, the
weekly youth supplement to Le Vingtième Siècle (Le XXe Le Siècle)


1929-30

Communism in the Soviet Union
●
●
●
●
●

●

The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917
The founding of the Soviet Union in 1922
Tintin in the Land of the Soviets published in 1930
Hergé worked for a right wing Belgian newspaper,
Le XXe Siècle
The story was thus inherently and intentionally
biased against the Bolshevik government to instill
anti-Marxist and anti-Socialist ideas into children
Examples
○
○

Bolsheviks rig elections
The government steals the people’s grains


1929-30


1930-31

Racism and animal cruelty in the Congo
●
●

●

●

Congo was a Belgian colony between 1908 - 1960
Tintin in the Congo was originally meant to educate
young Belgians about their country’s colonial
regime
Hergé’s most controversial story
○ Racism - depiction of African natives as
subhuman, “monkey people”
○ Animal cruelty - Tintin kills animals wantonly,
chimpanzees, antelope; in the original version
he blows up a rhino with dynamite
Immature, ill-researched story, when compared to
the later ones.

1930-31


1931-32

Capitalism in the New World
●
●

A masterpiece of satire.
Hergé mocks American capitalism
○ finding an oilfield in Red Indian country
○ Gangsters’ Syndicate of Chicago
○ widespread mechanisation of industries

●

Original versions raised some controversies
○ lynching of African Americans


1931-32


1934-35

Political insurgencies in the Far East
●

The Blue Lotus is one of Hergé’s pivotal works
○

○

●


attention to historical accuracy
■ The Mukden incident
■ Japanese invasion of Manchuria
■ The League of Nations
realistic, less contrived storyline

Tintin takes a stand against Asian stereotypes

1934-35


1935-37

Politics in South America
●

In The Broken Ear, Hergé creates two fictitious
countries to draw parallels with his story and South
American politics
○

○
○
○

San Theodoros, a satirical version of a South
American nation under the yoke of military
dictatorship
Historically similar to Bolivia or Argentina
The Grand Chapo War
The minor character of Basil Bazarov, and his
equivalent in real history - Basil Zaharoff


1935-37


1938-39

Balkan politics
●
●

King Ottokar’s Sceptre is one of Hergé’s
political masterpieces.
Stunning parallels with Balkan politics leading
to WW2
○
○
○
○


Syldavia = Transylvania + Moldavia ?
Borduria is a typical Eastern Bloc nation under a
totalitarian Fascist government
Musstler = Mussolini + Hitler?
Steel Guard and the Romanian Iron Guard

1938-39


1939-45

The Second World War
●
●
●
●

Belgium had been annexed by the Nazis
Hergé was now working for Le Soir, a pro-Nazi
newspaper
Subtle references to the World War in the earliest
(unfinished version) of The Land of Black Gold
Anti Semitism and Nazi bias in early editions of
The Shooting Star
○
○

deleted panels showing Anti Semitic caricatures
The “enemy” was originally sponsored by the
United States


1941-42


after the
second world war


1950-53

The Space Race
●

●
●
●

The space race between the USSR and
the USA inspires the epic two-part lunar
landing adventure
Syldavia’s secretive atomic research
center
Borduria’s attempts at sabotage
Rise of a polar world, continued in The
Calculus Affair.


1954-56

The Cold War
●
●

●


The Calculus Affair is yet another political
thriller
Syldavia and Borduria are shown as two
superpowers, attempting to get their hands
on a weapon of mass destruction.
Professor Calculus’ visit to Geneva was
possibly inspired by CERN.

1954-56


1956-58

Slave trading in the middle east
●
●
●
●

The Red Sea Sharks is a logical sequel to The
Land of Black Gold
Rampant slave trading in the Red Sea by Arabs
Tintin and Captain Haddock take a humanitarian
stand, in an attempt to help the African natives
Hergé’s way for making up for the controversies
in the Congo?


1956-58


1961-62

The politics of the media
●

The rise of the paparazzi culture forms the
backdrop of The Castafiore Emerald.

●

Politics between rival media houses

●

Ill treatment of gypsies


1975-76

Politics of a banana republic
●
●
●

Tintin and the Picaros, Hergé’s last complete
story is a political masterpiece.
Oppressive military dictatorships of South
America
San Theodoros as a satirical banana republic
○
○

●

Revolution sponsored by the International
Banana company
stratified social classes

Human rights
○

Tintin insists that the revolution be completely
non violent and bloodless


1975-76


Tintin - the ideal comic book hero
●
●

●

Comics originally written in French.
A certain French law of 1949 banned all
children’s literature that showed
cowardice and ignominy in favourable
light. Probably why Tintin was shown to
be
○ noble, courageous, dignified
○ like an overgrown boy scout, in
pursuit of a simple ethical code
Politically motivated legislation to curb
Superman in Europe?


Tintin and human rights
●

An overgrown boy scout in pursuit of a
simple ethical code
○

●

Early stories created many controversies
○
○
○

●

Animal cruelty
Racism
Antisemitism

Later however, Herge made amends
○
○


What ethics?

Tintin and Captain Haddock against slave
trading
Tintin enforcing that a revolution be
bloodless

Tintin and sexism
●
●

Terribly skewed sex ratio of
characters
Only ONE major female
character
○

●

Bianca Castafiore

Helpful, “good” person, but often
shown in negative light
○

melodramatic, comically foolish,
whimsical, absent-minded,
talkative


Thank you
Particularly,
Professor Hari Nair for inspiring me to work on this topic.
And, Tyler, for helping me present this from Calcutta.


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