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Possible Academic Studies on Tintin

Abdullah007
Member
#1 · Posted: 11 Sep 2013 05:38
Hello and bonjour! I'm currently thinking about doing an Honours thesis next year (about 10,000 words, an extra year extended onto the end of my undergrad course, in which I majored in both history and literature) and have decided to do something related to Tintin. However, aside from that, I'm rather stuck for ideas.

Any suggestions for possible topics or areas of study? Hit me with your ideas to give me a little inspiration. Preferably something that isn't already out there (I'm sure there must be something!) or at least to delve deeper into something touched on before. However, I don't necessarily mean actual topic sentences per se, at this stage. Thanks in advance for your help!
mct16
Member
#2 · Posted: 12 Sep 2013 22:30
How about a thesis on the science in Tintin? You could for instance look at what kind of properties the metal Phostlite in "Shooting Star" would have contained. What kind of use could one find in a matter that causes insects and mushrooms to grow to man-size?

Also there is the way in which scientists themselves are treated by Herge: in his early books he tended to portray scholars and scientists as eccentric, absent-minded or actually mad, such as Sarcophagus in "Cigars" or the professor who met the parrot in "Broken Ear" or Philippulus the prophet-astronomer in "Shooting Star". Calculus was the culmination of such eccentrics but other figures of high-learning who came after him, Wolff of "Moon" and Topolino of "Calculus Affair", were more level-headed.

Another subject could be: How much of a reporter is Tintin? In most of his adventures he comes across as an actual detective rather than a journalist. He is very much a reporter in "Soviets" and "Congo" when he observes the lifestyles of people in foreign lands. "Soviets" does include a scene where he is shown writing out his observations thus far and in the Congo he films many scenes with his camera.

In "America" however, he actually appears to be actively trying to break-up the crime gangs of Chicago. Most real-life reporters would talk to informants, interview police detectives and publish articles that could lead to the arrest and conviction of criminals, not actually perform the arrests themselves. His background as a reporter is briefly touched in "Broken Ear", "Shooting Star" and "Land of Black Gold" but apart from those, he is more of an detective than a journalist. If you were a reporter investigating exploding oil would you get yourself a job as radioman on board an oil tanker or would you just go as yourself, researching an article on life on board such vessels?

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