Den blåögde lille reportern : En kvalitativ studie i hur Hergés Tintin skildrar en västeuropés attityd till omvärlden under 46 år

Sammanfattning: The objective of this study was to investigate differences in the portrayal of Western European citizens and non Western European citizens in Hergé’s graphic novels about the young journalist Tintin. We wanted to see if the globalization during the mid 1900’s had an effect on Hergé’s way of portraying the world. We started off by selecting nine novels from three different periods of time, though we read all of the novels in The Adventures of Tintin. The periods were: the years in between the world wars (three novels), the post war years (four novels), and the beginning of the new age – late 60’s and 70’s (two novels). In each novel, we analyzed three different situations, in three different boxes from the novel. The situations we chose to analyze were: a portraying of one or more non Western European citizens, a communication between two Western European citizens about a non Western European citizen or its culture, and a communication between a Western European citizen and a person from outside Western Europe. We also made an analysis on every album which we based on our impressions of the novel as a whole. The analysis revealed a certain difference in the way Hergé depicted people from Western Europe as compared to people from other parts of the world. People outside of the culture of Western Europe are portrayed as uncivilized (Native Americans), revolutionary (white South Americans) or evil (the Japanese). At the same time Western Europeans are portrayed as smarter and more civilized. However the study also shows that over time there is as significant change in the way that non Western Europeans are portrayed, ranging from the first album to the last. As Hergé gets older, the novels become more sophisticated and the characterizations of people from other cultures than the Western European evolve.