COMICS-BASED LITERARY TRAILS: THE CASE OF TINTIN AND THE SAINT-NAZAIRE LANDMARKS by SIMON BRÉUS A thesis submitted to the University of Plymouth in partial fulfilment for the degree of RESEARCH MASTERS

...................................................................................................................................... 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................................... 5 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 6 LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................................................................... 9 Urban tourism and the historical approach ...................................................................................... 9 Destination image and the circuit of culture .................................................................................. 10 Comics literacy............................................................................................................................. 11 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................ 14 The interview and discourse analysis ........................................................................................... 16 Netnography ................................................................................................................................ 17 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................ 19 The Circuit of Culture ................................................................................................................... 19 Production ................................................................................................................................... 22 Consumption ................................................................................................................................ 30 Regulation ................................................................................................................................... 39 Identity ......................................................................................................................................... 44 Representation ............................................................................................................................ 53 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................ 64 Conceptual contribution................................................................................................................ 64 Practical contribution .................................................................................................................... 66 Limitations of the research ........................................................................................................... 68 Future research............................................................................................................................ 69 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................ 71 TABLE OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... 81 APPENDIX ...................................................................................................................................... 82 Appendix A .................................................................................................................................. 82