Tintin and the Secret of Literature

"Is Tintin literature? asks Tom McCarthy in this study of one of the greatest comics of the 20th century. He embarks on an adventure in deconstruction and discovery - bringing on board the readers themselves as well as such writers and philosophies as Balzac, Barthes, Bataille, and Derrida - aimed at determining Tintin's cultural status." "Invigorating both subject and method with a brio so relentless it is almost disturbing, McCarthy unpacks Tintin while offering a tour de force of literary theory. Playful, provocative, puckish, at times even rather racy, this irresistibly clever, tightly constructed book shows how the themes Tintin generates are in fact the very same that have fueled and troubled writers from the classical era to the present day."--BOOK JACKET.

Tom McCarthy was born on May 22, 1969. He attended Dulwich College and New College, Oxford, where he studied English literature. His first novel, Remainder, was published in 2005. His other works include Tintin and the Secret of Literature, Men in Space, and C. He is also a conceptual artist and is known in the art world for the reports, manifestos, and media interventions he has made as General Secretary of the International Necronautical Society (INS), a semi-fictitious avant-garde network.