"The translator, Jocelyn Hoy, has done an exceptional job of rendering conceptually difficult material clear and elegant without sacrificing the precision of Apostolidès' original text... Apostolidès' focus on the interiority of the text renders The Metamorphoses of Tintin or Tintin for Adults a fascinating exercise in psychoanalytic literary criticism, one full of insight and the starting point for anyone interested in close readings of the albums... Apostolidès very successfully traces the evolution of tone, narrative, and character through a psychoanalytic close reading. It is the capacity for change, the metamorphoses, inherent to Hergé's fictional masterpiece that Apostolidès so richly details thereby demonstrating that Tintin's world is not dead on the page, but vibrantly alive."—Richard Ivan Jobs, Pacific University, H-France Review "[Apostolidès] convincingly makes the case that the much-loved Tintin narratives are worthy of the kind of attention more usually accorded to works of the established literary canon."—Raphaël Taylor, Times Literary Supplement "The Metamorphoses of Tintin , a classic of contemporary French literary scholarship, is one of the most successful examples of a study in "lowbrow" literature. Apostolidès shows how the highly successful comic-book series, The Adventures of Tintin , incorporates sophisticated anthropological insights into the nature of religious beliefs, the structure of fetishism, mimetic rivalry, drugs, and sexuality. Explaining how a tinge of colonialist pride in the early years of the series soon gave way to an attitude of solidarity with marginalized people and the poor, Apostolidès argues that the adventures of Tintin express a larger movement from a society concerned with public values to one more interested in private life." —Thomas Pavel, University of Chicago "Moreover, there are scores of scholarly books and articles about the young reporter, including that foundational work of Tintinology, the 1984 study by Jean-Marie Apostolidès, which has now been translated as The Metamorphoses of Tintin . This last is a labor of love but also of sophisticated analysis, examining the evolution and changing character of the Tintinesque universe Tintinatics of a scholarly turn will certainly want to acquire Jean-Marie Apostolidès's The Metamorphoses of Tintin ."—Washington Post Book World "In the course of describing the genesis and metamorphoses of the Tintin series and its characters, the author applies anthropological insights to topics such as value deflation, order and symmetry, rivalry, fetishism, and religious beliefs.... This volume's strengths: its groundbreaking critical approach, careful scrutiny of characters and plots, and clear, concise presentation (the last attributable to Hoy's translation).... Recommended."—J. A. Lent, Choice
"In the course of describing the genesis and metamorphoses of the Tintin series and its characters, the author applies anthropological insights to topics such as value deflation, order and symmetry, rivalry, fetishism, and religious beliefs.... This volume's strengths: its groundbreaking critical approach, careful scrutiny of characters and plots, and clear, concise presentation (the last attributable to Hoy's translation).... Recommended."
"Moreover, there are scores of scholarly books and articles about the young reporter, including that foundational work of Tintinology, the 1984 study by Jean-Marie Apostolidès, which has now been translated as The Metamorphoses of Tintin . This last is a labor of love but also of sophisticated analysis, examining the evolution and changing character of the Tintinesque universe Tintinatics of a scholarly turn will certainly want to acquire Jean-Marie Apostolidès's The Metamorphoses of Tintin ."
Washington Post Book World
"[Apostolidès] convincingly makes the case that the much-loved Tintin narratives are worthy of the kind of attention more usually accorded to works of the established literary canon."
Times Literary Supplement - Raphaël Taylor
"The translator, Jocelyn Hoy, has done an exceptional job of rendering conceptually difficult material clear and elegant without sacrificing the precision of Apostolidès' original text... Apostolidès' focus on the interiority of the text renders The Metamorphoses of Tintin or Tintin for Adults a fascinating exercise in psychoanalytic literary criticism, one full of insight and the starting point for anyone interested in close readings of the albums... Apostolidès very successfully traces the evolution of tone, narrative, and character through a psychoanalytic close reading. It is the capacity for change, the metamorphoses, inherent to Hergé's fictional masterpiece that Apostolidès so richly details thereby demonstrating that Tintin's world is not dead on the page, but vibrantly alive."
Pacific University, H-France Review - Richard Ivan Jobs
"[Apostolidès] convincingly makes the case that the much-loved Tintin narratives are worthy of the kind of attention more usually accorded to works of the established literary canon."
Times Literary Supplement - Raphaël Taylor
" The Metamorphoses of Tintin , a classic of contemporary French literary scholarship, is one of the most successful examples of a study in "lowbrow" literature. Apostolidès shows how the highly successful comic-book series, The Adventures of Tintin , incorporates sophisticated anthropological insights into the nature of religious beliefs, the structure of fetishism, mimetic rivalry, drugs, and sexuality. Explaining how a tinge of colonialist pride in the early years of the series soon gave way to an attitude of solidarity with marginalized people and the poor, Apostolidès argues that the adventures of Tintin express a larger movement from a society concerned with public values to one more interested in private life."
University of Chicago - Thomas Pavel
…a labor of love but also of sophisticated analysis, examining the evolution and changing character of the Tintinesque universe…Tintinatics of a scholarly turn will certainly want to acquire Jean-Marie Apostolides's The Metamorphoses of Tintin The Washington Post
Those who lament the dearth of books about Tintin in English will welcome this translation of a landmark French study, first published in 1984. Apostolidès surveys Hergé's cartoon character's evolution-political, cultural, psychological-from the earliest adventures, in which he's a kind of superhero single-handedly meting out justice, to the last albums, in which he has become more fully human, if still largely an emotional cipher. As the author warns in the preface, he takes a largely Freudian approach whose vocabulary some may regard as "heavy or outdated." Of Tintin's move from Labrador Road to Marlinspike Hall, he says: "He becomes a full-fledged member of the family, without having to worry about the threat of castration that the Father had always held over the son for wanting to take his place." On occasion, the translator missteps (e.g., Tintin teaches "calculus" instead of arithmetic to the young school children in Tintin in the Congo; Captain Haddock "disguises himself as a policeman on horseback" in Destination Moon when in fact he dresses up in the bearskin hat and red tunic of a soldier in a British Foot Guard regiment). On the other hand, Apostolidès provides insights into the word play of the original French texts that you won't find in, say, Benoit Peeters's Tintin and the World of Hergé (1988). Tintin fans who don't mind some academic jargon will be rewarded. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
"The Metamorphoses of Tintin , a classic of contemporary French literary scholarship, is one of the most successful examples of a study in "lowbrow" literature. Apostolidès shows how the highly successful comic-book series, The Adventures of Tintin , incorporates sophisticated anthropological insights into the nature of religious beliefs, the structure of fetishism, mimetic rivalry, drugs, and sexuality. Explaining how a tinge of colonialist pride in the early years of the series soon gave way to an attitude of solidarity with marginalized people and the poor, Apostolidès argues that the adventures of Tintin express a larger movement from a society concerned with public values to one more interested in private life."