rachellisabanks

Week 10: SciFi/Alt-History by Rachel Banks

Q2. What distinctions are there between alternate history, postmodern alternate history and uchronie genres?

Philip K. Dick’s (1962) The Man in the High Castle has proven to have a longstanding reputation as critically acclaimed piece of writing. Dick uses the prophetic Chinese Oracle I Ching or Book of Changes as part of his central plot device with which his characters interact to make choices throughout the story.

Critics have praised this work as exceptional example of the uchronie or alternate-history genre, however Mountfort, P (2016) argues differently, “The I Ching, I argue, is the device that, literally and figuratively, unifies the stylistic and philosophical dimensions of the novel, leaving us with a sophisticated postmodern fiction that explores the boundaries of text and world, their overlappings and multiplicities.”

Many academics have cited Dick’s (1962) work as being a formative example of alternative history, otherwise known as the French term “uchronie” whereby he takes on the notion of the Nazis winning WWII.

“William Joseph Collins, elaborates three subcategories of uchronie: “pure uchronia,” consisting of one alternative world; “plural uchronia,” in which this and an alternate world existing in parallel; and “infinite uchronia,” in which there are many, even infinite parallel worlds” cited in Mountfort, P. (2016)

“This notion of “critical disjunctions along the linear time line” is the stuff of the uchronie genre, but it is also a contingent function of the view of time implicit in the philosophy of oracular consultation, as per Everett and Halpern’s observation that “reliance on the I Ching introduces an element of chance, it suggests that alternative possibilities always exist, perhaps in different realities where other hexagrams were cast” cited in Mountfort, P. (2016)

In conclusion uchronie genres and alternative histories are similar. However when there are multiple outcomes of alternate stories Mountfort, P (2016) argues these moves into the realm of post-modern alternate history.

References
Mountfort, P. (2018) Science fictional doubles: Technologization of the doppelgänger and sinister science in serial science fiction TV, Journal of Science & Popular Culture. Volume 1 No.1 . Intellect Ltd

Mouuntfort, P. (2016) The I Ching and Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle, The I Ching and the Man in The High Castle; Science Fiction Studies, Volume 43. pp.287-309.

Week 12: Reality TV by Rachel Banks

Q1. Can reality TV still be thought of as a genre given the high level of hybridity that exists?

Since the conception of Reality Television it has morphed into multiple hybrids and sub-genres. Whereby the original concept of Reality TV was documentary style journalistic content it has become a genre in its own right and still deserves recognition as a genre. Reality TV is essentially unscripted content that is woven together to form a narrative. From its beginnings documenting “The Real World” on MTV, where a group of single adolescents shared a house with cameras filming their every encounter, it has transitioned into multiple sub-genres and hybrids.

Now Reality Television encompasses talent shows, cooking shows, following fringe jobs, romance, game shows, house renovations, docu- drama, lifestyle shows and more. While the multiple variations of Reality Television would suggest hybridization the audience has come to understand and expect certain aspects that are unique to the Reality Genre. We expect either complete strangers chosen at random to be put through their paces for a prize, or people searching for love jumping through metaphorical hoops to secure the heart of the prize bachelor or bachelorette. We expect to be able to vote in talent shows which are based on personal likeability as much as talent. We expect to see people fight it out and strategize to survive the odds of game shows such as “Survivor” or “The Block”. We know we’re going to see unobtainable wealth, luxury, and conflict when we watch the “Real Housewives” franchise or “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.” We imagine that our favourite recipe could compete on one of the reality cooking shows. We imagine that a friend or loved one may one day give us a “Surprise Makeover.” It’s these little hopes that keep us watching. We want to see how the other half live, even if it is mostly contrived.

Reality Television now is as well-known as a format as Drama or Documentary. There are multiple hybrids of these genres too. There are Romantic Comedies, Tragedy Drama, Psychological thriller drama, Medical drama, Crime Drama etc. Reality Television has created its own Genre and as creators keep coming up with new ways to create hybrids and subgenres it will still be relevant for years to come.

References
Biressi, A. & Nunn, N. (2005). Real Lives, documentary approaches. In
Reality TV: realism and revelation. (pp. 35-58) London: Wallflower.

Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television.(pp. 14 – 40). Oxon: Routledge.

Week 11: Reality TV by Rachel Banks

Q1. How real is reality tv?

Realty TV currently contains numerous subgenres. Gone are the days of hand held footage of behind the scenes action, documentary style, of law and order professionals or capturing the goings on in a busy hospital emergency department. These styles of filming are edited and made into stories with whatever footage became available at the time… The Real story.

Now, Reality TV is produced, scripted, planned and sold to sponsors before the people who are going to appear on screen stand in front of a camera. I have personally worked on a few Reality TV shows, X-Factor NZ, Dancing With The Stars, Finding Aroha, The Block x2, Hunt With Me and Married at First Sight. I’ve been on set, I’ve seen the way in which the stylists choose to portray a persona for the cast of characters. I’ve ushered in the marketing and sponsorship team to the best seats in the room. Basically I know how things work behind the scenes. Reality TV is not Real. Reality TV is contrived and planned like any other genre broadcast on the screens in our homes.

Reality Television has to make sure it can find an audience, advertisers and a broadcaster just like a documentary, journalism or drama series does. In New Zealand Mediaworks has aired a slew of Reality content one after the other both locally and internationally on TV3 and what was Four and is now Bravo. Why? Because reality Television is cheap to make, cheap to buy, and people watch it. People feel they can relate to the drama unfolding… because it could be them in the spotlight.

What the general audience doesn’t realise is that the creators and producers are looking to fill an character or architype for each role on their Reality show. They are looking for opinionated people who will clash, create tension and cause conflict with others. Moreover they are looking for people who will perform, how they expect, when the television series throws challenges at them. They do this to sell solutions to the participants in the form on sponsors or paid partnerships. People would stop watching if everyone got along and things happened easily. It would be boring… like Real life.

References
Biressi, A. & Nunn, N. (2005). Real Lives, documentary approaches. In Reality TV: realism and revelation. (pp. 35-58) London: Wallflower.

Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television.(pp. 14 – 40). Oxon: Routledge.

Week 5: Anime by Rachel Banks

Question 7: In what ways might Akira, Nausicaā and Mononoke be considered prescient?

Prescient can be described as insightfulness, prophecy or being able to have knowledge of the future. Akira, Nausicaā and Mononoke can in some ways be seen as the creator’s psychic vision of themes that may come to pass or they could be complete fantasy? According to Mountford, P (2020) Hayao Miyazaki’s works of Nausicaā and Mononoke take on a tortured relationship between humans and nature. He suggests that the strong themes around ecology also raise existential themes of sustainability of the human race. So in this sense there could be a prescient view of global warming and the earth fighting back against humans?

Morgan, G (2015) discusses Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki choices of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic world to set his stories. She states, “Nausicaä is living in a post-apocalyptic world, unable to breathe without a respirator because of the large amount of toxic spores. Her world is portrayed as forever toxic, resulting from the God Warriors a millennium prior. Comparing her world with that of ours and the toxic chemicals that have been dumped into our atmosphere and environment, we can begin to see that there is a tipping point where we are slowly annihilating ourselves.”

Furthermore Morgan, G (2015) describes Princess Mononoke as a battle between humans and nature. She suggests we “begin to see our failings and fears in how we approach environmental problems. Just as Miyazaki shows the characters’ misunderstanding of the complete cycle of nature, we can begin to see our incomplete picture regarding climate change. Just as warring tribes in Nausicaä tackle the encroaching Toxic Jungle by different means, we can compare that with politicians and scientists squabbling over data findings about the existence of climate change and how we should take action to combat it.” Morgan, G. (2015)

The works of “Hayao Miyazaki emphasize ecology – both in the films’ representations of the nature and engagement in environmental discourse as well as their interest in the interaction of part and whole, self and society, humanity and the world.” Thevenin, B.(2013)

Akira is described by Chu, H. (2018) as a “frenetic cyberpunk anime”, showing that cartoons, across cultures can take on bigger social issues. He says the narrative is part allegory telling the story of the fallout from nuclear bombs being dropped in Japan during WWII. He suggests that “Akira represents the bomb and Tetsuo is the dreaded next calamity.”

Schley, M. (2018) regards the world in which Akira (1988) is set in Otomo’s Neo-Tokyo. It was filled with “hyper technology, urban sprawl, disaffection and unrest.” Schely (2018) says “the director was prescient not just about the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but the danger of religious cults.” This is in reference to the sarin gas attack on Tokyo’s subway.

Chan, M. (2015) suggests “the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor accident which occurred in Fukushima, Japan in March 2011 had wide reaching impact in terms of environmental pollution” and is indicative of Hayao Miyazaki’s eco-fable warnings.

References:

Cavallaro, D. (2006). Introduction. In The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki (pp.5-13). London: McFarland & Company.

Cavallaro, D. (2006). Frame of Reference. In The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki (pp.15-28). London: McFarland & Company.

Chan, MA (2015) Environmentalism and The Animated Landscape in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) and Princess Mononoke (1997). In: Animated Landscapes: History, Form and Function. Bloomsbury, New York, pp. 93-108.

Chu, H. (2018)Why the pioneering Japanese anime ’Akira’ is still relevant 30 years later. Retrieved November 19, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/why-the-pioneering-japanese-anime-akira-remains-relevant-30-years-later/2018/07/12/b7577c74-813f-11e8-b851-5319c08f7cee_story.html

Otomo , Katsuhiro (1988) Akira [Film]

Miyazaki, Hayao (1984) Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind [Film]

Miyazaki, Hayao (1997) Princess Mononoke [Film]

Morgan, G. (2015) Creatures in Crisis: Apocalyptic Environmental Visions in Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke. Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities, Volume 2, Number 3, Fall 2015, pp. 172-183. University of Nebraska Press

Mountfort, P (2020) [Video] Week 5 Anime lecture; https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/bbcswebdav/pid-5326019-dt-content-rid-12630385_4/institution/Papers/ENGL602/Publish/PopGenres_Week%205_Anime%20%232_Part%202.mp4

Schley, M. (2018) Akira: Looking back at the future | Deep reads from The Japan Times. Retrieved November 19, 2020, from https://features.japantimes.co.jp/akira-new/

Thevenin, B. (2013) Princess Mononoke and beyond: New nature narratives for children. Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture. 2013, Vol. 4 Issue 2, p147-170. 24p.

Usher, T. (2016) How ’Akira’ Has Influenced All Your Favourite TV, Film and Music. Retrieved November 19, 2020, from https://www.vice.com/en/article/kwk55w/how-akira-has-influenced-modern-culture

Wright, L., Clode, J.(2005) The Animated Worlds of Hayao Miyazaki. Metro. 2005, Issue 143, p46-51. 6p.

Week 9: Cosplay, by Rachel Banks

Q2. In what ways can cosphotography be understood as a form of “fan capital”?

“‘Cosphotography and Fan Capital’ investigates photographic practices at cosplaying sites….For cosers, photographs and video can serve as tokens of exchange within an economy of desire that values subcultural capital or hipness rather than raw dollar value.” Mountfort et al. (2018)

The art of creating a costume, hair makeup and putting it all together to become a cosplay character can become a very dedicated and time consuming hobby. Therefore some Cosplayers want to retain the rights of any photographs of their image and creative outlet. Within convention spaces there are props and interesting image backgrounds in which cos players can take photographs of them and their friends. However, there is also the monetization of cosphotography where by people will pay a fee to have a selfie with a delegate/actor who is onsite representing their Franchise. There are also fashion shows for cosplayers to show their costumes to each other. Often there are prizes attached. People within the cosplay community may use their cosphotography as a way to contribute, participate in and show off their talents to the community. In this way cosphotography can be more valuable to dedicated players than the monetary value spent on the creation of their costumes. Some cosplayers will give permission to be photographed by other attendees at a cosplay event.

“The resulting images may go nowhere, but equally they offer potential exposure to a global audience of millions, within and beyond the cosphere.”
Mountfort et al.(2018)

References

Mountfort, P., Peirson-Smith, A., & Geczy, A. (2018). Planet Cosplay. Intellect Books. Intro and Chapter 1

Mountfort, P., Peirson-Smith, A., & Geczy, A. (2018). Planet Cosplay. Intellect Books. Intro and Chapter 2

Mountfort, P., Peirson-Smith, A., & Geczy, A. (2019), Cosplay at Armageddon Expo*, Journal of Geek Studies Cosplay at Armageddon Expo* | Journal of Geek Studies. Retrieved November 20, 2020, from https://jgeekstudies.org/2019/08/11/cosplay-at-armageddon-expo/

Week 8: Cosplay by Rachel Banks

Q2. What does the terms détournement mean and how is it applicable to cosplay?

Cosplay is a term derived from costume and play. It is a way for fans of popular genres to dress as their favourite characters from TV, Films, Comics, Anime, and computer games. According to Mountfort et al. (2018) cosplayers may be enthusiastically found at places where these genres are celebrated such as fan conventions. There are differing levels of commitment to those who engage in Cosplay. Some people will happily throw on a cheap costume bought from a store, while other more serious cosplayers will spend a great deal of time and money perfecting their costumes. These more serious cosplayers will often take on the persona of the character they portray within the convention circuit. As such cosplay isn’t just about ‘dressing up’, it’s about inhabiting and participating in the world the character performs in. For theses cosplayers they are both the audience and the performer when amongst other cosplayers.

Furthermore there are those in the cosplay realm that take their performance more seriously. They use cosplay as more than fandom and enhance it to encompass critical practice.

“A term that is useful in unpacking cosplay from this perspective is détournement. Associated with the Paris-based social revolutionary group of intellectuals and artists of the 1950s known as the Situationist International, it remains in use in critical theory today and resonates well with cosplay. Détournement literally means ‘to reroute’ or ‘to hijack’.” Mountfort et al. (2018)

Mountfort et al. (2018) explains Situationist détournement cosplayers go above and beyond to replicate and to create their own fandom around their cosplay. They may use a mash up of characters or genres in a form of ‘recontextualization’. They rise above regular cosplay going creating playfulness, subversion, pranks, to intentionally test the political, aesthetics as well as social hierarchy and authority in a story world.

For people who engage in cosplay they are not simply role playing. They are simultaneously using détournement by gathering materials of various types, putting them together to recreate new identities for themselves for the performance and attendance at conventions. It is a serious and expensive form of creative exploration for people to discover their own inner selves through the process of costume and roleplay.

References:

Mountfort, P., Peirson-Smith, A., & Geczy, A. (2018). Planet Cosplay. Intellect Books. Intro and Chapter 1

Week 7: Horror, by Rachel Banks

Q1: King (2010) describes Horror as being defined through three basic elements. Explain, using references, what these three elements are. Think of a horror story you’ve read/watched/heard that makes use of all three of these elements and show how King’s definition is at play in that narrative.

““Horror,” as a category of ordinary language, is a serviceable concept through which we communicate and receive information. It is not an obscure notion,”says Carroll, N. (2003). Although Horror is a well-known genre, there are many sub-genres to consider such as Body Horror, Supernatural Horror, Psychological Horror, Art-Horror and those Horror stories involving monsters whether they are perversions of human beings or aliens.

When describing Horror, King (2010), describes three basic elements, Terror, Revulsion and Horror to identify sub-genres. He uses the examples of Freaks or Carnival folk in the context of Revulsion. To audiences they seem to be drawn to the weird oddities of people on the fringe of society such as dwarves, Siamese twins and bearded ladies. An example of this style of Horror features in season 4 of the Television series “American Horror Story – Freak Show”. As well as the aforementioned freaks there is a woman with male genitalia, a strong man, a pin-head and more. The season is creates uncomfortable emotions for the viewer as they become more familiarized with the characters and sense how exploited and disposable they are in the society they must survive in.

The two other elements written by King (2010) are Horror and Terror. I’ve chosen the (2005) film “Hostel” as an example of both, as when I viewed it a number of years ago it left me with a very unsettled experience. The film is set in Slovakia where tourists are kidnapped from a backpacker’s hostel and sold to members of a mysterious organization. These people travel to this area to torture, mutilate and kill the kidnap victims. When the protagonist wakes up in a dungeon he is confronted by a masked man holding a drill. In the background you can hear the screams of people being butchered while awake. In this example there is the splatter and gore or a classic Horror as well as the psychological terror that comes from the knowledge this could happen to anyone anywhere. I believe it left me particularly terrified as I’ve stayed in back packer accommodation in many parts of the world. In some ways “Hostel” could also take on the Revulsion factor because the people who are paying to torture humans are of a Freakish nature.

References:

King, S. (2010) Danse Macabre

Carroll, N. (2003). The Nature of Horror. In The Philosophy of Horror. Routledge.

Hendrix, G., & Errickson, W. (2017). Paperbacks from Hell. Quirk Books, pp9-14

American Horror Story (2014-2015) [TV Series] “Freak Show” Season 4

Roth, Eli (2005) Hostel [Film]

Week 6 Questions: Horror by Rachel Banks

Question 2: What is the philosophy of cosmicism and how is it used to convey a sense of dread in both The Shadow Over Innsmouth and The Colour out of Space?

“The basis of all true cosmic horror is violation of the nature and the profoundest violations are always the least concrete and describable.”-H.P Lovecraft

Cosmicism is a word to describe the followers of the Cthulhu Mythos which stems from H.P Lovecraft’s world of Cosmic Horror. The philosophy of cosmic horror focuses on the general fear of mankind’s insignificance in the greater universe. According to the ethos there is no divine presence or God and humans are completely inconsequential in the greater cosmos and landscape of creation as a whole. Those who follow the Cthulhu Mythos have an underlying belief of cosmic pessimism. It is about the scale and vastness of the cosmos, filling human’s with the dread felt when we realize our limitations as human beings.

Unlike other horror genres which use, monsters, murderers and slasher modalities, cosmic horror uses anthromorphic figures that change shape and leaves slime in its wake. It is more abstract and elusive in nature. It leaves its victims unable to cope with the experience. It creates existential dread. As Stableford (2007) says, “At first glance ‘‘cosmic’’ seems to be used here merely as a replacement term for ‘‘supernatural,’’ but the substitution also implies a particular psychological attitude to the supernatural.”

In the Colour out of Space, Lovecraft (1927) he uses language to build tension and unease from very early on in the piece, “the secrets of the strange days will be one with the deep’s secrets; one with the hidden lore of old ocean, and all the mystery of primal earth.” It continues, “When I went into the hills and vales to survey for the new reservoir they told me the place was evil. They told me this in Arkham, and because that is a very old town full of witch legends I thought the evil must be something which grandams had whispered to children through centuries.”

His story continues to drop in mysterious circumstances of the area with the arrival of a meteorite that was constantly warm and glowed at night. It then disappeared completely. Later the story continues by referencing a well that seems to feed on the people until it grows strong enough to fly away into the sky. “It was no longer shining out, it was pouring out; and as the shapeless stream of unplaceable colour left the well it seemed to flow directly into the sky.” The narrator leaves us with questions… “What it is, only God knows. In terms of matter I suppose the thing Ammi described would be called a gas, but this gas obeyed laws that are not of our cosmos.” This uses another aspect of cosmic horror, the unknowable.

Again there is building on tension and of the unexplained with mental anguish as a result in a quote from H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Shadow over Innsmouth” (1936)“I have an odd craving to whisper about those few frightful hours in that ill-rumoured and evilly shadowed seaport of death and blasphemous abnormality. The mere telling helps me to restore confidence in my own faculties; to reassure myself that I was not simply the first to succumb to a contagious nightmare hallucination.”

Furthermore the narrator discusses the otherworldly mutated and transformed population of Innsmouth, “Only a very rare affliction, of course, could bring about such vast and radical anatomical changes in a single individual after maturity—changes involving osseous factors as basic as the shape of the skull—but then, even this aspect was no more baffling and unheard-of than the visible features of the malady as a whole.”

In conclusion the overall sense of dread is in play in both H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, The Shadow Over Innsmouth and The Colour out of Space. This is done with mysterious unexplained otherworldly agents affecting earth. The narrators of both stories are left with a mental unease and sense of dread.

References:

Joshi, S. (2007) “The Cthulhu Mythos”. Icons of Horror and the Supernatural. Greenwood Publishing Group, pp97-198.

Lovecraft, H.P.(1927)The Color Out Of Space.

Stableford, B. (2007) “The Cosmic Horror”. In Joshi, S. (2007) Icons of Horror and the Supernatural. Greenwood Publishing Group, pp65-96.

Lovecraft, H.P. (1936) “The Shadow over Innsmouth” by H. P. Lovecraft. https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/soi.aspx. Accessed November 20, 2020.

Week 4 – Anime

Is anime a high or low cultural medium, according to Susan Napier (2005) and what are some of its subgenres?

“Unquestionably a masterpiece of technical animation, Akira is also a complex and challenging work of art that provoked, bewildered and occasionally inspired Western audiences when it first appeared outside Japan in 1990.”
Napier, Susan (2005) p5

Napier (2005) states that some may argue Japanese Animation, or Anime as it is commonly referred, are short lived, low forms of art rising and falling around the demands of the marketplace and changes in popular tastes. She asks if Anime should in fact be compared to Haiku, woodblock prints and other high culture Japanese art forms or should Anime be analysed as purely social phenomenon?

Napier (2005) reflects the rise in Anime as an intellectually challenging art form. She states the rise in academic discourse around anime from the 1990s as evidence for its increased importance as a form of high art particularly relevant to aesthetics and sociological studies. Within Akira, we see the results of a post doomsday event leaving children orphaned and exploited.

Moreover, Napier (2005) argues that as well as anime being a form of entertainment with global reach, the medium also moves audiences and provokes viewers to consider contemporary political and social issues. An example of this is the corrupt military, police and political officials, in Akira.

She also suggests that the origins of Anime come from traditional high Japanese art such as Kabuki and woodblock. In Napier’s (2005)“The problem of Existence in Japanese Animation”, she discusses the evolution of anime originating from Kibyoshi, animated texts, which then evolved into Manga, graphic novels, and then to animation.

On the other hand Napier (2005) recognizes that animation is usually seen as a low cultural form of minor art worldwide, especially in Western culture. These societies associate animation, or cartoons, as used generally to entertain children, or as the occasional abstract arthouse piece of work. Whereas in Japan Animation has a long running track record of being created since post world two and is appreciated by multi generations as well as covering many sub-genres.

Some of the subgenres are as follows: Children’s cartoons, such as “Pokemon”, “No need for Tenchi” – Romantic Comedy, “Heidi”– Children’s Classic, Science Fiction with additional subgenres- Cyberpunk and Mecha (which is shortened for mechanical). This subgenre incorporates robots and androids. Another popular subgenre is Apocolypse, which be either of the material world or the interpersonal world. More subgenres are Sex, Festival, Elegy, Samurai sagas, as well as “Perfect Blue which incorporates the “schizo-psycho thrill machines” subgenre and finally the Post Doomsday Fantasy subgenre that is Akira.

In conclusion Napier refers to Anime as a fascinating medium that should not be assigned to merely “low” or “high” cultural attributes. She maintains that the modalities used to research and understand Anime are far more complex.

References:
Katsuhiro Otomo (1988) Akira

Napier, S. J. (2005). The Problem of Existence in Japanese Animation. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 149(1), 72–79.

Napier, S. (2005). Why anime? In Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (pp.3-14). Hampshire: Palgrave/ Macmillan.

Napier, S. (2005). Anime and Local/Global Identity. In Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (pp.15-34). Hampshire: Palgrave/Macmillan.

Mountfort, P. (2020). Pop genres anime 1 Akira [PowerPoint Slides]. Blackboard. https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/

Week Three – Tintin

What gaps are there in Hergé’s representations of women?

The adventures of Tintin created by Hergé are predominantly from a masculine perspective. This is shown repeatedly throughout his works as female characters are frequently in the position of mother, caretaker, housekeep, nurse and wife. The only exception to this is the character of Bianca Castafiore, who is an opera singer and makes cameos through many of Tintin’s stories.

Therefore there are numerous gaps in the representation of women throughout Hergé’s texts. In public settings there is a distinct lack of female presence. Although women make up 50% of the population they make up less than a quarter of the people in group settings. Furthermore these women are usually attached to a man or a child. The independent women are missing from Tintin’s adventures.

There are no female protagonists or antagonists in the story arcs. The times that women are present they are depicted as emotional, nurturers, dramatic or bossy. They also have have very little dialogue and when they do it is relation to male characters in the story. For example, in The Black Island, Tintin is recovering in a hospital where a kind nurse says “he’s a lucky young man.” Furthermore another lady on a train admonishes the German villians for being rude. She says, “I beg your pardon! Never a proper hello. Never an excuse me. Never a polite goodbye.” To this Tintin responds with “Hello Ma’am, excuse me, goodbye.” This depiction of women is in line with that of a school matriarch.

Within the markets in the Arabic lands of “The Crab with Golden Claws” there are no women at all. Furthermore, the children depicted in the streets are boys. The only woman to make appearance in this story is the House keeper who screams when a man is kidnapped outside of Tintin’s home.

The women within Tintin’s adventures are often portrayed as lacking strength, physical, mental and emotional. Their dialogue is lacking in importance to the story, except when pointing out distressing situations. This is reinforced in “The Blue Lotus” with the mother wailing of her son’s predicament, whereby he is afflicted by poison to make him insane. At the end of the story while celebrations are underway as Tintin has saved the day she says “and to my son for getting well.” Analyse of Hergé’s work and the lack of agency in the female characters did little to gain change in the author.

“Hergé apparently ignores and arguably resists the challenges to women’s subordination which were being staged in various feminist ‘waves’ throughout the period of his life and work.” Mountfort, Paul (2020) pg 2.

Furthermore the author reinforced his position by suggesting that there was no place for women in Tintin’s world.

References:
Hergé, (1931) The Blue Lotus
Hergé (1938) The Adventures of Tintin – The Black Island
Hergé (1941) The Adventures of Tintin -The Crab with Golden Claw
Mountfort, P. (n.d.). ‘Tintin, gender and desire.’ Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics. https://doi-org.ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/10.1080/21504857.2020.1729829