Amanda's Blog

Wrapping up our final weeks together in this term, our ASTU class has been reading the novel Disgrace written by J.M. Coetzee in 1999. Set in post-Apartheid South Africa, Disgrace tells the story of English professor, David Lurie; as he deals with the consequences of having an intimate relationship with one of his students, Melanie Isaacs. One of the major themes which arise throughout Disgrace is the concept of truth. In conjunction with our discussions regarding Disgrace, we also read an excerpt from the novel written by Antjie Krog, Country of My Skull. Country of My Skull is another South African novel which hits on the idea of truth in a crime. Similarly in both texts, there is a trial scene where the public is not content with the truth that has been revealed and would rather provoke a confession with an offer of remorse or reconciliation. 

A pivotal scene in Disgrace which demonstrates the significance of truth occurs right in the middle of the novel (Chapter 6), where David is on trial for his crime. This scene has significance because it is the final moment in David’s life before he is officially “disgraced” from the Cape Technical University. In this moment, David accepts that he is “guilty of all that [he] is charged with” (49). As a response, many of David’s co-workers like Dr. Farodia Rassool demand to “register an objection” and Chairman Hakim question the sincerity of David’s confession (50). Throughout this meeting, David does not seem to reflect upon his actions nor apologetic. In his admittance to the crime, there is no emotion or guilt, just a plain confession with insincerity for what he has done to Melanie. This is further identified by Rassool when she says his confession has “no mention of the pain he has caused, […] the history of exploitation of which this is part”, when asked about the specificity of his crime (51). The behaviour exhibited by David demonstrates how he has told truth, but it does not evoke the same feeling of justice towards others. 

In Country of My Skull, Krog approaches the idea of truth in a different manner, where she describes her own feelings. The text of Country of My Skull describes Desmond Tutu’s trial but through different genres like dialogue, journalistic and diary-like. Krog expresses her experience towards “truth” through her diary-like accounts but with the different genres, she is able to create a more rounded version of the truth. The dialogue resembles a testimonial rendition where the reader can have an objective view of exactly what was said. The journalistic description of the story may be the master-narrative which is popular among the public whereas Krog’s personal perspective offers a more raw and emotional counter-narrative. Krog’s thoughts can be read on page 50, where she says “the word “truth” makes [her] uncomfortable” to the extent where she hesitates and is “not used to using it” (50). By including moments like this in Country of My Skull, Krog effectively demonstrates how the trial has affected her on a personal level and gives the reader another perspective towards the word “truth”. In Krog’s passage, we can see how the perception around Tutu’s trial and idea of truth can be portrayed differently through three distinct narrative styles.

From reading these two novels, I also got to learn about South African history and the Apartheid. I am familiar with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in Canada towards Indigenous communities but was unaware of the TRC in South Africa after the Apartheid. My understanding about the Apartheid was able to expand and develop through reading these literary works. With these novels and the looming end of the CAP program, I was able to reflect on the overarching theme of being a global citizen. Specifically, I was able to enrich an understanding of communities around the world; with how past events continue to affect the present day. Additionally, I was enlightened to see how every story has both a counter and master-narrative, where themes like “truth” may be misconstrued depending on the perspective.

 

In our ASTU class, we have been examining novels about the trauma and memories that came from World War II as a continuation of what we have learned from psychologists. One of the literary works we have recently read is Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman.  Published in 1991, this graphic novel illustrates Spiegelman’s father’s experience during the Holocaust and the war. This is done through a continuous interview between Art and his father Vladek, while the storyline jumps through present and past, and are depicted as mice. Even though the novel is black and white, I think Spiegelman effectively transitions between space and time separation by chapters, iconic images and through the use of comic strip structure.

The story of Maus is separated in six chapters, which add a story-like vibe to the graphic novel. I noticed that right before the chapter ends, the interview of the past suddenly pulls away and the chapters start and end in the present. In terms of Spiegelman’s narrative style, I noticed that he is able to connect the past and present storylines with the use of chapter separation. Spiegelman uses the chapter to switch back to the present so he can control time and when certain events are told. 

Each page of Maus has an immense amount of care and detail taken into account. Spiegelman uses two different techniques to convey time through playing with the comic strip structure. Conventionally, Spiegelman uses the gutter to provide closure to the reader. This moment in between panels allows the reader to connect both images in their mind. The break in time has a certain idea that the author wants the reader to see and if done effectively, the reader can relate both panels together, even if they are moments apart. Spiegelman uses the gutter – a unique element to storytelling for comics, as a way for the reader to have closure and fill in the space between panels. The other method is when Artie is interviewing Vladek and the reader is seeing the past, the moments of present which interrupt the past are drawn in without borders. For example, on page 14, the frames in the present have no borders, which show a contrast between two storylines. 

The graphic novel is illustrated with iconic images like mice and cat characters. Throughout the novel, we can see how the characters are illustrated with little visible changes in age throughout time. For Vladek’s character, the difference between the past and the present are slight changes in appearance with the addition of glasses. The importance of these iconic images in the novel demonstrate that there is a link between the past during the war and in the interview between Artie and Vladek. In doing so, it conveys the message that the issues concerned with the Holocaust are still relevant and can be observe in the present. The use of iconic image allow the Spiegelman to switch smoothly between the past and present storylines while changing perspectives as well. In a way, the iconic images allow Spiegelman to defy time and fuse both storylines together. 

I personally enjoyed and appreciated reading Maus because I got to read about the Holocaust, but in a more light-hearted way on the surface with the comic style, but upon further analysis, there are more details hidden within each page and image. I thought it was interesting how even though the graphic novel is in black and white, Spiegelman is still able to convey the flow of time through this medium. With the constant fluctuation of time, I think this can be related back to our central theme of memory. The breaks between past and present demonstrate how memory is not always fluid, however with the iconic images, these issues associated with the past or our memories may be relevant to the present. 

In my ASTU class, we have been studying Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which was published in 2007, and follows Changez Khan’s life before and after 9/11. The novel centers around Changez, an American immigrant from Pakistan, who works in the company Underwood Samson, in the business district of New York. The story is told in a café in Lahore, where Changez is telling his story to an American tourist. The story is told in present day and contains analepsis – where he flashbacks to his experiences in America, and cuts back into present tense from time to time.

While I was reading the novel, I made connections to my sociology class, where we watched a TEDtalk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The danger of a single story. In her TEDtalk, she discussed her difficulty finding her “cultural voice” and “warns if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical understanding” (TED). In Adichie’s TEDtalk, she addresses the fact that when she was young, she only read novels written by British authors because that is what was available. She describes the dangers of reading from a single perspective because they can be consistently confirmed harmful stereotypes and lead to misunderstanding due to its biased opinion. This relates to what we learn about Sarah Polley’s movie Stories We Tell, where it is important to consider all sides of the story when we are recalling events because our memories or other perspectives may be conflicting. In addition, I actually read her novel, Americanah,in my IB English class last year and found similarities between the main character, Ifemelu and Changez. Both of the protagonists are immigrants from third world countries and assimilate into American culture. From their origin countries, they didn’t realize that they were different until they came to America. Changez tells his story from his narrative and does not include other voices unless he is referring to past events. In a way, Hamid is also writing a single sided story, because he is so selective towards who the reader gets to hear from. While on the other hand, he is writing from an entirely new perspective towards the events of 9/11. I think he does this on purpose, to spotlight the new perspective of what it was like for immigrants at the time, and giving them a voice.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a pivotal novel because it addresses the events of 9/11 from a Pakistani perspective. From what we see in the media coverage about 9/11, there is a heavy emphasis on the victims from the American point of view, but this novel offers an alternative view where we see how the lives of who are of middle eastern descent have changed following 9/11. Again, going back to Ngozi’s TEDtalk, we can see how Hamid has written a counternarrative, offering a different perspective to the 9/11 incident. In the novel as well, from the scene of Changez meeting Erica’s family, we can see how prejudices towards people like Changez already existed, but through the event of 9/11, this stereotype has strengthened and been adopted by more of the public. Even in the media today, I think there is an over-representation of one individual, that therefore reflects negatively on the group. I think this relates to what I learned in my psychology class about the representative heuristic. The representative heuristic is the tendency to “determine the probability or frequency of an event based on assumptions or past experience” (PsychCentral). Similar to a stereotype, this is where we make assumptions about individuals based on past experiences, which may not be entirely true, and results in fallacies.

The climax of the novel revolves around 9/11, which changed the way people treated Changez and his perception of America.  For me, this event happened when I was less than one years old, so I don’t personally remember any details about it happening or from the news. In school, I didn’t really learn about 9/11 so my knowledge about this event was rather general and basic before I read this novel. My understanding of 9/11 was based on what my parents told me or the tiny bits of information that I heard since I never really studied this in depth. From my point of view, it was not really discussed because it was seen as an uncomfortable topic no one really knew how to approach or talk about because they did not want to be offensive or discredit this event. I remember it as a terrorist attack that lead to tragedy, that took the lives of almost 3,000 people and changed the way the world viewed security. Not only security, but I think the perception of terrorists, and people changed as well, to always be on the side of caution. When I travelled to Hong Kong in the past, I experienced stricter flying regulations as a result of an increase in security following 9/11. When I think of 9/11, I often picture the iconic image of the plane colliding into one of the twin towers, followed by a dark cloud of smoke and a hint of fire. However, I learned in my ASTU class that there were other places that were attacked or planned to be attacked as well. Reading from the perspective of Changez, us as the reader get to see two unique perspectives from the same individual, which was quite eye-opening for me and furthered my understanding of this tragic event. For one, I read the novel from the perspective of someone is from and assimilated into the American culture. Secondly, I read about how the event of 9/11 affected the treatment immigrants from Pakistan in America. Reading the novel, the novel is quite raw and doesn’t falter to describe his experience immigrating to America and how he was treated before and after 9/11.

Citations:

https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story#t-365919

https://psychcentral.com/encyclopedia/representativeness-heuristic/

Published in 2003 (English translation), the graphic memoir Persepolis: The Story of A Childhood, follows the childhood and young adulthood of Marji after the Iranian revolution in 1979. Illustrated and written by Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis tells the story from Marji’s perspective during moments of intense political conflict in Iran. The importance of Persepolis is that it does not refrain from depicting images of a brutal violence and torture, which has resulted in the graphic memoir being banned in several countries (Case Study). An intriguing element about Persepolis, is that the graphic narrative is illustrated in black and white, which is a contrast to the bright red cover. The lack of colour involved in the graphic memoir functions to convey subliminal messages, Marji’s innocence and reminds us who the story belongs to.

One of the most striking features about Persepolis, is that it is illustrated in black and white; which is unique and therefore separates itself into a different category. In our ASTU class, we discovered that this black and white style is similar to Maus by Art Spiegelman, another graphic novel with heavy underlying political influence. In an interview, Satrapi states that “words are never enough” and how she prefers graphic narratives which provides a “literary and cultural map” (Words Are Never Enough).

The use of illustrations in graphic memoirs like Persepolis, provides another dimension to the story. The reader is given a visual component which allow messages to be conveyed without words. For example, on page 70, where we can see that the shape of the speech bubbles changes as Marji become increasingly frustrated. The speech bubbles shapes are rectangular in the second tier and to become sharp and pointy edges, representing her passion and tone. Following the same pattern of the speech bubbles, the reader can notice the changes in punctuations. From ellipsis, which represents hesitation to a contrasting and definitiveexclamation point. We can see in the technical details of this page; how graphic novels reveal Marji’s emotions without directly stating them. Instead, we can see them intensify through the use of punctuation, Marji’s body language and speech bubble shape.

Another example is from pages 152-153, where we can see how all Marji and her parents are all dressed in black, which represents that there is a sense of somber amongst them and foreshadows to their separation. We can see throughout the graphic memoir, Satrapi uses black to represent sadness, suppression and violence. In many of the panels for war, riots and where Marji feels sad, black is predominant throughout the page. As for white, Satrapi uses white to show pure, heroic objects. For example, God, whom is sacred to her, and martyrs are dressed in white. The use of these contrasting colours allows Satrapi to communicate underlying feelings to the reader.

The illustration from Persepolis are all hand-drawn by Satrapi. By drawing in black and white, she creates a filter towards the political conflict. This filter acts as a barrier between the reader and Marji, demonstrating that it is her story to tell. We as the reader, can grasp the main images but are limited to a certain extent whereas the complete story, filled in with colour, belongs to Satrapi. When it comes to details of the illustrations, the same idea is also reflected through her drawing style. Satrapi chooses to draw iconic images, with less detail and easy to identify. The simplicity of her illustrations reflects the idea of Marji’s innocence towards complex images. Not only does she have the ability to draw to a certain extent, she also controls everything we see because it is written from her limited perspective. Every panel enforces the idea of Persepolis being her memory, her drawings and her story.

In Persepolis, I noticed the use of black and white drawings can serve many different purposes, not just for aesthetic reasons.  From playing with light and dark, providing additional information to a scene, to acting like a filter; Satrapi effectively employs this technique to communicate her experiences in Iran. However, in another sense, I find it ironic how Persepolisis a black and white graphic narrative, yet the story is not always black and white; there is a substantial amount of grey area, which can be other’s perspectives. It is important to remember that Persepolisis the story of one individual and is not exactly representative of everyone’s story.

 

CITATIONS

“’Words Are Never Enough’.” Toledo Blade, www.toledoblade.com/a-e/Books/2014/10/12/Words-are-never-enough-says-Persepolis-author-Marjane- Satrapi/stories/20141012011/

“Case Study: Persepolis.” Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, www.cbldf.org/banned-challenged-comics/case-study-persepolis/

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis: The Story of A Childhood. L’Association , 2003.

In the Museum of Anthropology at the UBC Vancouver Campus, the “Arts of Resistance Politics and the Past in Latin America” was an exhibition curated by Dr. Laura Osorio Sunnucks, that was available to be viewed from May to September 2018. As the title of the exhibition suggests, the featured artwork was from Latin America, in the forms of masks, graffiti art, murals, clothing and personal drawings. The exhibition was centered around how these pieces of artwork hold and express information of the past in Latin American countries.

Being from Vancouver, I have visited the Vancouver Art Gallery several times and have developed an enjoyment for viewing art with friends, which is what I did for this experience. I think art is universal, as in it can be created and viewed around the world. Art can be used to express and communicate without a language barrier. In the exhibition hall, it was respectfully quiet; and you could see people captivated and learning information by viewing the artwork. I got to see how these pieces of artworks have the power to radiate culture, while having important ties to the history of the origin country.

Something that caught my attention, was the vibrant colours that could be found throughout “Arts of Resistance”.  I was mesmerized by the use of colour as I usually prefer neutral or darker colours. The use of striking, bright colours effectively reflects the lively and energetic nature of their cultures. Being a visual learner, seeing the artwork is a helpful way for me to learn about history. For example, in the section with the paintings and Codex, it was much easier for me look at a linear progression of history rather than reading from a textbook about it. The Codex in the exhibition illustrates the 2014 disappearance of 43 children in Mexico and is even referred to as a pictorial manuscript on the Museum of Anthropology website. (https://moa.ubc.ca/exhibition/arts-of-resistance/)

Alongside each section of the exhibit, was a description about the role of the artwork. The short write-ups provided background information and explained why these pieces of art are so important. After reading the blurbs next to the pieces of artwork, it made me think back to the first ASTU class, where we discussed the theme of memory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In ASTU, we investigate how memory is conveyed through text, but through the exhibition, I noticed how memory can be conveyed through another artistic mode like art. Upon reflecting about what we talked about in ASTU, I realised a connection between the paintings and the themes we discussed in Sarah Polley’s movie, Stories We Tell.  Like Stories We Tell,the Codex is an artist’s interpretation of history. Although it may be accurate in certain aspects, it may lack details or have a bias due to a sole person’s reconstruction of the past. Through the exhibition, there were a few labels and descriptions for certain pieces of artwork, but for the few that didn’t, I was confused about what I was looking at and was wondering if it was a continuation but due the layout, perhaps I did not connect it with the proper piece. Through this confusion, I realized the importance of fully understanding each piece of information, otherwise there would be unexplainable gaps when re-telling stories of the past. By walking through“Arts of Resistance Politics and Past of Latin America”, I was realized the purpose of the exhibition, which is an opportunity for people to see the history and culture of Latin American countries through the mode of art.

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