Question week 2
2. What is the alleged connection between Hergé’s early comics and propaganda?
Tintin is a character many of us grew up with and loved. Although the series evolve around a heroic, and in many ways relatable character there are a darker side to Hergé’s popular illustrated series. Stereotyping, suspect politics, racism and anti-Semitism are just some of the issues that people still argue about. The two first Tintin publications are the ones who receives the most critique and are still cause of argument today.
Hergé’s political outlook was shaped by extreme right-wing anxieties of retro-colonisation, something that’s common in Belgium, Britain and France (Frey, 2004).
The supposed connections between the early Tintin comics and propaganda takes root in Hergé’s own political connections and viewpoints.
There have been many discussions because of the issues around extreme-right wing ideologies in the Tintin series, especially in Tintin au Pay Soviets (Tintin in the Land of the Soviets) and Tintin au Congo (Tintin in the Congo).
According to Laser-Robinson (2005) Tintin au Pay Soviets is considered a work of anti-communist propaganda and it had a strong “right-of-centre” view against Stalinist Russia, while Scorer (2008) describes the comic as “an unabashed piece of capitalist propaganda satirizing Soviet Russia.”
Hergé himself distanced himself from the accusations in his earlier years but have later said that Tintin au Pay Soviets and Tintin au Congo were “sins of youth” (Scorer, 2008). You could argue that Hergé was well aware of what he was doing considering his collaboration with Léon Degrelle.
Degrelle was the Belgium far right-wing leader and Hergé worked for him as an illustrator (Frey, 2004). Hergé worked for him during the Nazi occupation of Belgium (Scorer, 2008) and illustrated a cover for one of Degrelle’s pamphlets (Frey, 2004).
Hergé also continued to publish Tintin in Le Soir which was controlled by the Nazi occupants (Frey, 2004).
During this period Hergé published L’E ́toile mystérieuse (The Shooting Star) a story where the villain was a cliché corrupt Jewish banker (Scorer, 2008). The character is named Blumenstein and embodies anti-Semitic stereotypes. The stereotypes were commonly used by the Nazis and Francophone extreme right-wing (Frey, 2004). Hergé changed this character when the comic was republished after the war (Scorer, 2008).
Le Lotus bleu (The Blue Lotus) is the fifth volume in the Tintin series, although Hergé had changed and tried to be more considerate this is still a publication with traces of propaganda. According to Laser-Robinson (2005) the Japanese people in the comic looks like “living breathing propaganda posters”.
The way Hergé is similar enough to war propaganda form the same period to suggest that Hergé used the same techniques as propaganda artists used (Laser-Robinson, 2005).
McCarthy (2006) says that Tintin’s political origin lie on the right, and that there is a good reason to why Hergé and his legacy continues to be accused for racism, stereotyping, suspect politics and so on.
Sources:
Scorer, James. (2008). Imitating Incas and becoming llama – Tintin in Latin America – or the Latin Americanin Tintin? SAGE Publications.
https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/doi/pdf/10.1177/1367877908089261?
Frey, Hugo. (2004). Contagious colonial diseases in Hergé’s The Adventures of Tintin. Modern & Contemporary France.
https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/doi/pdf/10.1080/09639480410001693043?needAccess=true
Laser-Robinson, Alexander S. (2005). An Analysis of Hergé’s Portrayal of Various Racial Groups in The Adventures of Tintin: The Blue Lotus. Tintinologist.org.
https://www.tintinologist.org/articles/analysis-bluelotus.pdf
McCarthy, Tom. (2006). Tintin And The Secret Of Literature. Granta.
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