Hello readers,

Before I begin with my blog, I want to commend all the bloggers of ASTU GO4 for their insightful blogs. After reading all the blogs, I understand that the graphic autobiography “Persepolis” was a source of inspiration for many different dialogues and observations. In fact, the debate about the current role of religion in our modern world (Codi, Wamaitha, Oliver, and Arvind) was quite a prominent discussion in this week’s blogs. Whereas a few other bloggers went on writing about unique and intriguing analyses (such as Trump’s influence on the “presidential genre” (Simon), and about the significance of illustrations in graphic narratives (Kaspar)), I would like to deliberate on one of the leading topics that was discussed throughout the week: the role that “Persepolis” played in the portrayal of an oppressive regime.

To start off, “Persepolis” is a graphic narrative with “many ways to approach the book” (Beril). This is something that I strongly support because after reading each blog, every writer shared a different perspective on the book’s interpretation of certain messages. As Beril notes, one of the messages conveyed by Marjane Satrapi (the author of “Persepolis”), was that the people of Iran were manipulated by “power”. Throughout my readings, it is fair to say that many of the bloggers inadvertently settled on a common belief. The Iranian government depicted the use of “power” through numerous ways. Like the bloggers of ASTU GO4 stated, there were newly imposed regulations enforced upon Iranians (Lisa), there were the lives of heroes, like Anoosh, taken away by the government (Devon), and there was the establishment of fear within the country (Jane). With this in mind, I argue that Marjane Satrapi is demonstrating how the history of Iran is complex and that the correct interpretation of the narrative is up in the air.

Corresponding to what Lilly mentioned, reading this graphic novel through the perspective of an academic allowed many of us to better understand what truly happened during the Iran-Iraq War. The unorthodox inclusion of violence in the graphic narrative did not only give the global community access to learn about what happened during this time of trauma and confusion, but it also allowed citizens from every corner of the world to interpret the story behind every frame of illustration through their respective outlook on the issue. In the same way, how there are multiple ways to demonstrate one’s support as a “feminist” (Codi), there are various methods of sharing and learning a story too. If there is one message to take out of from this week’s blogs, it’s that everyone is entitled to their unique means of communicating a message and that there is always more than one meaning behind every message.

Sources:

Lisa- https://blogs.ubc.ca/lisabasilsblog/

Lilly- https://blogs.ubc.ca/lillysastublog/2017/10/12/post-2/

Beril- https://blogs.ubc.ca/berilgunduz/

Codi- https://blogs.ubc.ca/codisblogtasticblog/2017/10/12/modern-interpretations-of-feminism/

Kaspar- https://blogs.ubc.ca/kaspar/

Jane- https://blogs.ubc.ca/astujoowonjane/

Wamaitha- https://blogs.ubc.ca/wamsblog/

Simon- https://blogs.ubc.ca/simonluojy/

Oliver- https://blogs.ubc.ca/ngoliverblog/

Arvind- https://blogs.ubc.ca/arvindsblog/

Devon- https://blogs.ubc.ca/devonsamazingawesomeblog/

Hello ASTU!

Since our last blog post in class we have mostly been focusing on the the graphic narrative Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and the genre of graphic. Almost every single blog post mentioned Persepolis and used it as a platform for talking about bigger topics like religion, oppression, and government, more specifically how those three play together. Feminism relating to the veil was also frequently brought up. One major theme that I kept noticing was the comparisons between Eastern and Western views and cultures.

After reading Persepolis I think those us who grew up in western cultures were thrown off by the amount of direct violence presented by the book. In Lisa’s blog she mentioned how most people from western cultures have not see the affects of war first hand or have been personally touched by the chaos of revolution. For myself this is true. This maybe why when we read Persepolis and violence is portrayed very bluntly as a normal almost everyday thing it is hard to totally comprehend what that looks like and what that feels like. Jane writes about how living in an environment like that puts a person in touch with their most primal emotion: fear, and how fear not only reshapes a nation but it changes people too.

Something else that was brought up a lot in the blogs was the Veil and how it can be a liberating feminist tool, but it also has been used by governments to strip women of their rights to self expresion. Codi, Lilly and Oliver talked about their experiences with the veil and mentioned how laws banning the veil along with laws that make the veil mandatory are both oppressive in the same way. Oliver quotes Marjane Satrapi saying “governments should not force anyone to have to do something they would not do on their own free will.”  Oliver explains that no matter if you force women to wear the veil or if you ban it, people will do the opposite because it should be their personal right to choose if or if not they wear it.

One of the reasons that laws have been put in place banning the veil is the idea that banning it will keep the government secular. Beril explains how the sensitive relationships between government, power and religion have long been used and to manipulate the public. Beril uses an example from Persepolis where young boys were given plastic keys and told lies about the afterlife and then sent out to fight. In this example the government used promises of a religious afterlife to rid children of the fear of death so that they would fight for their cause. Wamaitha in her blog about if or if not religion is fading brings up the very interesting fact, even though the number of youth who believe in God is declining the number of youth who believe in the afterlife is actually inclining. Which makes me think that maybe religion isn’t fading but instead it is just changing.

Another topic that talked about changing in the blogs was genre. Kasper  focused on the genre of comics and how they are essentially just stories with boxes and pictures. Typically they are light reads that are often humorous but also widely accessible. Recently though comics have been taking a more political and serious side. This can be seen in both news paper comics and Persepolis. A blog post that I found particularly interesting that  talked to talked about genre was Simon’s. Instead of focusing on genre in terms of literature he looked the presidential form of genre. How it’s not only the things that the president’s write or says in their speeches but rather the way they conduct themselves. Simon explains how Trump has changed this genre and that Trumps presidency is an example of how one person can completely reshape or change an entire genre.

It was great to see everyone’s views of what we’ve been studying in the past few weeks. Every post had a fresh look and gave me something new to think about. Thank you for all the new ideas and sharing your thoughts with the world!

Sources:

Berlin’s Blog:https://blogs.ubc.ca/berilgunduz/

Codi’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/codisblogtasticblog/2017/10/12/modern-interpretations-of-feminism/

Jane’s Blog:https://blogs.ubc.ca/astujoowonjane/

Kaspar’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/kaspar/2017/10/11/comics-stories-with-boxes-and-pictures/

Lilly’s Blog:https://blogs.ubc.ca/lillysastublog/2017/10/12/post-2/

Lisa’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/lisabasilsblog/

Oliver’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/ngoliverblog/2017/10/12/the-headscarf-in-persepolis-and-in-canada/

Simon’s Blog:https://blogs.ubc.ca/simonluojy/

Wamaitha’s Blog:https://blogs.ubc.ca/wamsblog/

Hi ASTU class, 

This week’s blogs were mostly inspired by our reading of Persepolis, but also included issues on related to the articles we read on the hijab as a symbol of feminism, academic honesty regarding historical memoirs,  ,as mentioned in Irene’s blog and genre which was also a central topic in Kaspar’s and Simon’s blog.

Almost all blogs drew a parallel with the state of politics worldwide. I believe reading Persepolis was a wake-up call for all of us and made us reflect on different issues such as identity, feminism, mass surveillance, freedom of expression, religion and nationalism.

I believe that many of us felt that the events and violence depicted in by Marji were  foreign to us but as  Lisa  wrote “we may not be as far removed as we think”. She stated this after comparing mass surveillance as depicted in Persepolis with the uncovering of the NSA’s mass surveillance by Edward Snowden, and how today in North America we have the illusion of ‘being free’ when in reality we are very much under the lens of the government.

Furthermore, for Beril and Arvind, analysed  the parallels  of religious nationalism represented in Persepolis, with the current political situation in their home countries. Beril compared the current  Turkish governments claims on religiousness with the the frame in Persepolis where the boys are given the keys to heaven, if they join the army and fight for their country. Similarly, Arvind, could relate religious nationalism, in his country India, that has a very diverse population but also that a the Hindi majority has influence in the government and the potential dangers of a rise of religious nationalism. These blogs, brought , a seemingly foreign idea represented in Persepolis to the context of current politics in India and Turkey.

Another theme discussed in class, while reading Persepolis, was the veil. Lily, Oliver, Waimatha and Codi, comment on how their perspectives about the hijab have changed. Seeing the hijab as a symbol of feminism was thought-provoking as Codi mentions, because it helps us understand Satrapi’s opinion that even though she conveys the veil as a symbol of oppresion, she also disagress with the political opinion’s that suggest banning it because it is equallly oppressive. I also found very interesting, the question Waimatha addressed of religion as a fading element that is incompatible with modernity, but that then she mentions a hijab as example of Islam and feminism, a modern concept, fused.

Lastly, the oppression and fear were two themes explored in Evan’s and Jane’s blog. Jane examined the way fear is a primitive instinct in humans and that it can reveal aspects of our personality. She uses the frame in Persepolis when Marji, runs after the bombing fearing her family was dead. Which gives us an insight into her relationship with her family, and how that shapes her identity, which is also a concept Devon uses to explore Marji’s transformation throughout the book. Oppression, is an sentiment that the author conveys in different ways in Persepolis, but Evan, expands this definition from the political to the socioeconomic. He points out the cyclical nature of oppression and “how difficult it is to completely break a cycle of oppression once it has begun”.

I enjoyed greatly reading all of our blogs, all of them made me reflect and gave me food for thought. Having read Persepolis was a great learning experience, because even if at first, you think there is not much you would be able to relate to, it actually mirrors many of the problems we have in our world today.

Hi readers,

This week we read the graphic narrative “Persepolis” by Marjane Satrapi. As I have been reading the blogs of my class mates I have seen that some of them were about a similar topic: Religion. In Persepolis, religion is represented as a from of political oppression. I would like to add some of my thoughts about this representation; most states use religion as a political tool to gain more sympathy from the people, at least that is what happens mostly in Middle East. In my country Turkey, there are similar problems like we read in the book. As a person who wears the veil myself, I have always felt that when I go out to street people would make a political statement about what I wore. I can simply tell that I could feel half of the people’s hatred towards me because they probably stereotyped my political views even though I wear the veil because of my religion. When I came to Canada I was relieved because it is not seen as a political statement, it is simply religious. I think one of the reasons why Satrapi hated the veil was because it built a barrier between the women of Iran. A woman wearing a veil would show that they support the government and the ones that don’t would show that they oppose the government because the veil has become a symbol for politics. The veil has a different meaning for everyone so there are many different perspectives about the veil. The articles we have read in class influenced our perspectives about this topic.

Oliver and Codi wrote about the veil which is a topic we have discussed in class. Oliver concentrated on the different views about the veil in Canada. He wrote about his own experience which a person wearing a veil or not didn’t make a difference to him when he was a child. He also mentioned the Quebec ban of the veil in public service. Codi wrote about her contrasting views about the veil before and after reading the articles that we discussed in the class last week. She was interested about how feminism and veil interacted in Celen Ibrahim’s article. Seeing different views of the same topic: “feminism” has made her think about her own interpretation of feminism. “From what I have deduced, Muslim woman are also guarding themselves from the standards posed on all women; such as beauty and body standards. This caused me to deeply consider what “feminism” really means, and how I, too am guilty of believing headscarves were a signifier of male dominance.” (Codi). She thought that veil was a form of oppression before she has seen another perspective about it. She also states that the “westernized view” might be responsible about how she viewed feminism. There are many different points of view about oppression and understanding different ideas is what makes the global world great.

After I read Wamaitha’s blog which was concentrated on youth and religion, I really found the part where less young people believed in God, and more of them believe in the afterlife interesting. I also think that with the globalization of the world people become much more individualistic and they want to believe in something that wasn’t thought to them by their parents or school, they want to believe simply because they really believe in something. “Fernandez brings up that although the younger generation are less likely to participate in organized religion, there is an increase in what he deems “private spirituality” (Fernandez 2016).” (Wamaitha). She also wrote about her own experience with religion and science which I found interesting.

Some of us thought about our own experiences such as Arvind and Lily. Arvind distinguished between his own country India’s Hindu fundamentalists and Iran’s religious fundamentalists. He thought that these groups were very much alike because they want to impose their life styles to those around them who have different beliefs. Lily wrote about her personal experience in Armenia which is a neighbour of Iran. “I think one of the main responses to reading the book is a new understanding of Iran, especially since Marji is a character that other young people can identify with because she has similar coming of age struggles. This offers the perspective that we are more alike than different, regardless of what country we are from, which is the perspective that I gained from living in Armenia.” (Lily). She states that her experience in Armenia has helped her get to know a different culture which does not only consist of oppression and war but also the generosity of people and the beauty of their culture. She also adds that she has read the book before her experience of going abroad and now. The difference has been great because she now understands how Satrapi has shown trauma in her graphic narrative by normalizing violence. Once again I thought of my own country who is near Iran and how it affected my point of view while I was growing up. Iran was always shown as the evil of Middle East in Turkey. There is always a fight between secularists and conservatives in my country and people were very afraid of what was happening in Iran near 80s so they banned hijab at schools because they didn’t want to “become Iran”. This ban has been there for almost 30 years and it has been used politically by Erdogan so the subject of “the veil” has become a great partition point in Turkey. People who wanted to be free and wear a veil has found shelter in Erdogan’s party which led to the situation that we see on media nowadays: one man ruling every aspect of the state. The demonization of Iran has led to much bigger political movements in Turkey which has caused a one-man regime. When I was a child I didn’t know anything about their culture, I have grown up only seeing their evil presidents and the women with veils on media. I really liked how Lily’s view of Middle East has changed when she got to know the region better. I hope that we all (including myself) as global citizens will look at different situations from a lot of different perspectives. That is the only way we will get rid of the oppression on our ideas caused by media.

Thank you everyone for these great posts, I really enjoyed reading them and seeing different views about the topics that we have discussed in class the past week. Have a nice week!

Sources:

Oliver’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/ngoliverblog/2017/10/12/the-headscarf-in-persepolis-and-in-canada/

Codi’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/codisblogtasticblog/2017/10/12/modern-interpretations-of-feminism/

Arvind’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/arvindsblog/2017/10/12/religious-nationalism/

Lily’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/lillysastublog/2017/10/12/post-2/

Wamaitha’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/wamsblog/2017/10/12/is-religion-fading/

Hi readers!

I have read all the blog posts written by my fellow classmates in ASTU G04, and I fully appreciate the efforts of you all and have managed to organize some common discussed topics. Throughout these four weeks, eight classes of ASTU course, our topic has been surrounding genre and memory. From the introduction to genre and its definition to Kate Douglas’ article about selfie as a new type of witnessing, we think about what kind of form of writing or communication fit certain situation the best. As Lilly puts it, “If these components are inappropriate demonstrations of the content, the genre will be delegitimized”, we understand the importance of correspondence of forms and situations how it further affects the credibility of the content.

After class discussion, we are to believe that memory itself is a genre, and it is often transmitted as history. However, in academia, most scholars or historians prefer data or historical facts over memories when doing researches. “Memory typically evokes strong emotional reactions, which could ultimately cause a distortion of information”, argues Codi. The alterability and emotional elements within memory may result in its incredibility and lack of neutrality.

While the public seems to accept the conception of memory as entirely subjective and unreliable, there is no guarantee that the information provided by the platforms we are used to is fully trustworthy. After our first ASTU class, when we were introduced the first nation people lived in area which is the current campus of UBC, Jordan was shocked by her little knowledge of the indigenous people lived in her hometown, Portland, Oregon. She then realized the fact that how the textbooks prevented her from learning local history.

In addition, the news reported by the media platform is as well suspicious in its widely accepted, unchallengeable accuracy. In Wamaitha’s blog post, she provides a personal experience encountering American’s false conception on the fatality of malaria. “She grew up with media that taught her that she, as an American, was in a place to help the less fortunate children of Africa.” She concludes that the media plays a significant role in shaping public minds.

Although the emotional elements contained in memory are possible to result in bias and inaccuracy, they, however, provide an alternative lens for us to see the broader picture. Ayse uses the example of Sociologist Veli Saçılık’s story in a proletariat protest. The news was hidden by the media; in order to gain public attention, Veli Saçılık shared his stories on social media. His stories show the public the unspoken part of history, and that is his memory. “I believe that a huge part of being a global citizen is empathizing with others, and memories teach us how to do that.” Historical incidents very often omit the minorities’ voices, and these voices can sometimes be the first-hand information. Unfortunately, they are easily viewed as threats to the political authorities and are completely erased from public memory.

Summary by Irene Lin

Dear readers,

The students from Professor Luger’s ASTU 100 class at the University of British Columbia have learned and discussed various topics – including memory, history, academic integrity, and genre – and wrote their personal blogs based on it. Throughout the students’ thoughtful and deep writings, the topic of memory & history and genre were used the most.

Genre, the topic most students had interests about was the new concept that was introduced in lecture. The concept of genre in academic writing was quite different than what we used to think that might help students to explore more about it. From the book “Academic Writing: An Introduction,” the concept of the genre was expressed in forms of the formula: Situation + Form = Genre (Giltrow, 5). About this new concept of genre, Lily described, “The situation of academic writing would be in an academic institution such as a university. The form in academic writing refers to the procedural elements that are required for scholarly work, for instance, citations.” (Post #1) As Lily provided with examples, the combination of situation and form creates different genres: the way you text to your friends, the way you write the letter, citation, and etc.

Different genres occur on different occasions and have different purposes. Based on this notion, Kaspar brings out intriguing questions to challenge this idea of the genre: “ Are there differences in languages that made one more suitable in specific occasion while some might be less capable of expressing certain emotions and messages?” (Language, an evolving matter) The answer to this question would be different depends on the culture, but I would answer those questions with “yes” that there are differences in languages that made one more suitable in particular occasion as there were certain words that are hard to translate to other language or have different meanings in different languages. In English, the word “gift” represents something that you give someone as the present, but in German, the word “gift” represents poison. Like the word “gift,” different occasions might require different languages that would form different genre.

As different situation and form create different genres, different genres need different context and different context comes from different types of information such as memory and history. Memory and history, those two similar but different words both represent the past experiences or events. However, memory and history are used in the different genre and have different reliabilities in a different genre. Codi states, “Memory is typically compared with data or facts when considering a notable event in history, or something of significance.” (Memory and the Complexity of Emotions) Memory usually based on personal experiences and emotions; history usually based on facts and data. In some genre – which requires connection with society or emotions – such as writing a letter to family member often use memory instead of history as its context. In some genre – which requires definite facts and data – such as documentary often use history instead of memory as its context. But sometimes, the documentary also use memory because “Historic accounts couldn’t properly represent those emotions [from past events] that went through me and countless others that day.” (Devon) As Devon argues, memory can be described as the better way to convey the emotions from the past. However, can we trust one’s memory as the evidence or fact of past events? Human’s mind is so flexible that sometimes memory can alter that would provide different memory from real memory. Furthermore, if the history has created based on people’s memory, the history – that we regard as the fact  – might be different with an original fact in the past. A French military and political leader Napoléon Bonaparte said, “History is written by the winners.” What we learn and know as the history is written by people, often by winners. If the history was written based on winner’s memory, what we learn as history can be different with real facts.

The reliability and suitability of memory and history in different genres are an ongoing discussion among the students. The one thing we know from this discussion is different genres require different context and, whether it’s history or memory, looking back upon the past makes us learn and helps us to not repeat same mistakes.

Sources

Harris, Kathleen, et al. “10 English Words That Mean Something Else in Other Languages.”RSS2, 6 Sept. 2017, inktank.fi/10-english-words-mean-something-else-languages/.

“A Quote by Napoléon Bonaparte.” Quote by Napoleon Bonaparte: “History Is Written by the Winners.”, www.goodreads.com/quotes/34092-history-is-written-by-the-winners.

Hello readers,

I hope you all are having a wonderful day today. The students of Professor Luger’s ASTU 100 class at UBC (University of British Columbia) have recently been tasked with writing a short article, relating to the ideas and concepts that are talked about in class. During my readings, I observed multiple different theories about certain concepts from the students. The different articles display each students individuality, and what they find to be the most intriguing about the course so far. While there were many different topics, such as citation, genre and plamgiarism (Eun, Lisa, Deniz). Memory and or Collective Memory was a topic that was in the to me.

Many of the ASTU students intentionally discuss memory and or collective memory (Julia, Simon, Devon). Specifically, ASTU student Julia states, that in Latin America, Independence day is very important, and that “it is the collective memory of that event that shapes our identities and strengthens the solidarity we feel towards each other” (Past and Present). Likewise, ASTU student Simon describes how growing up in China “the events took place in Tiananmen Square was never really brought to my attention, all the knowledge I had of this event was that there was a protest of some sort” (The importance of remembering). Since there was almost no collective memory of the incident, the reality of it was almost forgotten. Despite the different situations, the essence of both articles convey the message that it is necessary to have collective memory.

However, some ASTU students relate their topic to that concept of collective memory without directly saying it. ASTU student Victoria, describes a time she has taken a selfie in Cambodia, and says, “I meant no harm and no insult, all I wanted to do was remember how I felt when I was there and what was surrounding me” (A DIFFERENT LENS TO A SELFIE). Also Wamaitha exclaims in her talk of media that “things that are regarded as important in the western world are relayed to the media in Kenya as being important to us” (HOW DOES THE MEDIA AFFECT HOW THE GREATER INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY REMEMBERS?). These topics of social media, and how it is used relates directly with memory.

Are young people losing their sense of culture? Do people need to find a better way to pass down collective memory? These articles relating to memory describe problems that is a precursor to a larger societal issue.

-Evan Ruiz

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