1. Reading texts as collections of meaningful signs of various kinds is required of both characters in the text and readers of Prisoners of the Sun. Such texts include dreams, semaphors and even human gestures, and this is only the beginning of a much longer list. Given the "colonial difference" between the society from which Tintin comes, and that of both the Spanish colonists and the indigenous peoples of Peru, what is it necessary to know in order to interpret these texts? Is there a "proper" interpretation? What does the proper interpretation depend on?

2. Captain Haddock, Thompson and Thomson, Professor Calculus all weigh in the balance on the "Western" side as figures of adult authority. How do these figures compare with those of the Spanish and Inca spheres? How do we know who is in charge?

 3. What features distinguish Tintin from other boyish adventurers from the realm of folktale and children's literature?

 4. How does the verbal representation of Peru in The Prisoners of the Sun distinguish itself from that presented by the images? In other words, if you took the words away, what would the pictures tell you? If you took the pictures away, what would Peru look like?

5. What role does Western or modern science seem to play in the action of Prisoners of the Sun? What does Western or modern science "know"? What particular insights does it bring to the story? How does the story situate Western science?

6. Consider the role of religious belief and law in the struggles represented by Prisoners of the Sun. What is the place of religion in the occupied country? What are the signs of its power or weakness?

7. Consider the varieties of discourse in Prisoners of the Sun, and their relation to particular cultures or domains. How would you describe these discourses? Which ones seem to be more effective, which ones less so?

8. The relative absence of active and/or powerful female figures in The Prisoners of the Sun (1946) has not prevented this album from achieving international popularity, any more than the relative exclusion of significant male figures from the pages of Wonder Woman comics in the 1940's diminished the popularity of those comics. While it would be easy to dismiss the Tintin book on the basis of its gender inequities, it is a more interesting challenge to account for its gaps and omissions, and to examine what is at stake for a cast of male characters who have no one to blame for their mistakes but themselves, and their own buffoonery and haplessness. Consider the dynamics of the relationships among the male characters in Prisoners of the Sun, what matters, what doesn't, what counts for better or for worse.

 9. How is the story of Prisoners of the Sun like the story of Belgium itself? Please take into account the impact of colonization, scientific development, and resistance to military or political forces in the shaping of Prisoners of the Sun and of the nation called Belgium.