Wow, where to begin. Although the past 8 months of ASTU have gone by incredibly quickly, they’ve definitely contained a wide range of moments that have prompted me to reflect upon my own personal experiences throughout the years that relate to the overriding theme of our CAP stream, global citizenship. Growing up as a third culture kid I feel as though I have some sort of predisposition for viewing things through a global lens. In fact, I rationalized choosing this CAP stream over others because of this. So in a sense I view this as a culmination of growing up abroad, taking the knowledge that I have gained through living in such a diverse setting and applying it in an academic context.

Furthermore, there have been several moments throughout this course that have enabled me to make connections that I wouldn’t have necessarily made in the past. The strongest example of this didn’t necessarily occur in one moment, but rather over the course of the year as we explored the war on terror. Some of the texts we read in class, such as Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and Redeployment by Phil Klay reminded me of just how horrible and gruesome warfare can be, especially for those caught in the crossfire. This in turn reminded me of the responsibility that developed nations such as Canada and The United States have in protecting and helping people who have to leave areas that have been adversely effected by military intervention from them.

Ultimately this course has significantly broadened my worldview and made me consider current affairs through a much more critical lens. This combined with exploring literary and scholarly works that have arisen from these events has most definitely allowed me to gain a better understanding and knowledge of what it means to truly be a global citizen.

In Redeployment  Phil Klay explores various issues relating to issues experienced by armed forces members relating to trauma. Focusing specifically on Sgt Price who has just returned home from Serving in Iraq. The first thing that I noticed in this section of the book was the general overtone of nostalgia that appears to be ever present from as soon as he has spotted his wife at the airport, from the tongue in cheek humour on his wife’s sign to the reflection on the appearances of both his wife and his dog, Vicar who appears to be in frail health. This general pattern continues while Sgt Price interjects his thoughts in a reflective manner. Through this passage it becomes apparent that Sgt Price is caught up in all of the traumatic things he saw in Iraq, causing him to be hesitant around his wife, which is highlighted when his wife asks him if it’s good to be home.

Interestingly enough, in recent years the subject of war trauma, or more specifically Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has been featured much more prominently in the mainstream media with several documentaries and films demonstrating how difficult it can be for veterans to reacclimatize when returning to their home countries. However, one film in particular was hailed as bringing this issue to the foreground for the general public. Kathryn Bigelow’s 2008 acclaimed work The Hurt Locker. In particular, there is one sequence in the film in which Jeremy Renner’s character has just returned to civilian life and is shopping in a grocery store when he essentially has a panic attack. What interests me here is the contrast between Klay’s much more subtle representation of the difficulties of re-adjusting to civilian life to the much more visceral and dramatic version presented by Bigelow. Personally, I think it simply serves to show the wide range of ways that trauma effects soldiers.

In this blog post I’m going to be comparing 2 of several poems that we’ve read in class over the past 2 weeks. The poems I’ve chosen to compare are Photograph from September 11 by Wislawa Szymborska and The Names by Billy Collins.

Firstly, in terms of structure the two poems are inherently different. In Photograph from September 11, Szymborska consistently writes in 3 line stanzas and is much briefer where as in The Names Collins’ stanzas vary in length and the poem itself is quite a bit longer than Photograph from September 11. Another key structural point to note is that both of these poems use enjambment to varying extents. In doing this, the poets have an effect on the tone and atmosphere of the poem. In this case I believe that it highlights the the wide extent of the tragedy of 9/11 in an abstract way.

Furthermore, although the subject matter of both poems is effectively the same, they examine slightly different elements of the September 11th tragedy. For example, Szymborska’s title of Photograph from September 11 very accurately describes the content of her poem as she’s literally describing what one might find if looking at a still image taken during the events of that day. Contrapuntally, Collins title of The Names is in reference to all of the names of the deceased that are engraved on the walls of the 9/11 memorial in New York City. Summarily, one could suggest that the most fundamental difference between the two poems is that Szymborska can be seen as writing in the moment where as Collins’ poem can be seen as a reflection. In that sense the poems can be seen to compliment one another quite nicely. Ultimately both of these poems are excellent examples of post 9/11 literature and provide two eloquently worded perspectives on the events of that day.

Hello readers, in this blog entry I’m going to discuss the significance of Oskar Schell in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close By Jonathan Safran Foer. For those of you that have not read the book, Oskar is the protagonist in the novel who’s father passed away shrouded in mystery during the terrorist attacks on The World Trade Centre on September 11th, 2001. The novel essentially follows Oskar in his quest to uncover the mystery surrounding his father’s death, whilst simultaneously featuring interjections from His grandparents who are featured as narrators in several of the chapters. I believe that Oskar as a character serves as a motif or symbol for the thousands of people who lost friends and family on that fateful day and that Safran-Foer created Oskar as a manifestation of the suffering of all those people.

Continuing, it seems as though Safran-Foer makes a conscious effort while writing as Oskar, to remind readers that he is in fact a young child thus making it even more difficult for him to cope with losing his father. This effort can be seen most clearly throughout the first chapter of the novel which in turn leaves a lasting impression. This is evidenced in the first chapter as a whole. Oskar’s narration style can be described as both erratic and on the verge of incoherent, as he makes reference to trivial facts and events that have occurred in his lifetime. However, upon reading more of the book it becomes apparent that this is just a part of Oskar’s personality.

Conclusively, although Oskar is presented as an unusual child, this can be seen to counterintuitively endear him to readers who become more and more attached to the character as the novel and plot progress. At a higher level of abstraction, Oskar serves as a monument to all those who lost loved ones on September 11th, 2001.

Hello readers,

Over the past week in ASTU, as a class we read Joe Sacco’s critically acclaimed graphic novel Safe Area Gorazde. One of several things that I found intriguing about Safe Area Gorazde was Joe Sacco’s illustration style as well as the way in which he combines illustrations with gonzo journalism in a truly unique fashion. After reading Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis a few weeks ago in class, I felt as if I had a bit more of a firm understanding of the graphic novel genre, something that I had never really spent a significant time considering. However, as soon as I saw the first illustration in Safe Area Gorazde I knew the two graphic novels were about as different as they could possibly be.

Firstly, Joe Sacco and Marjane Satrapi have polar opposite illustration styles. in Persepolis , Marjane Satrapi sticks with an iconographic style that emphasizes the conformity that was brought to Iranian society during it’s revolution. She depicts countless crowds of girls in hijab throughout the book. Sacco, by comparison encompasses graphic detail in to his illustration in order to further emphasize the dramatic violence that occurred during the Bosnian genocide that occurred in the 1990s.

Furthermore, it is the contrasting illustration styles of these two authors that serves as a manifestation of their two different approaches to the graphic novel. Satrapi is of course writing from a purely personal perspective where as Sacco is producing this graphic novel as a journalist although he himself becomes embedded in the narrative. Sacco’s style of gonzo journalism (minus the illustrations of course) is quite comparable to that of Hunter S. Thompson’s. However, Thompson himself is credited with inventing the genre of gonzo journalism and of course making the style popular with works such as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

I’d like to start off this blog post by asking a relatively simple question. What allows us as humans to forget? In Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, A young girl’s life is recalled through a graphic novel. In Hillary Chute’s scholarly article titled: The Texture of Retracing in Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis” She examines the graphic novel through closely looking at how the aesthetics of the illustrations compare in relation to the trauma being expressed through Satrapi’s words. From my perspective at least, Satrapi’s words appear much more graphic than the illustrations. Although this may seem totally counterintuitive, it can be justified in the sense that more often than not, what’s left to the reader’s imagination turns out to be significantly more vivid and potentially traumatizing than what the illustrator decides to display. Another example of this occurring in popular culture was in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1961 film “Psycho” in which a murder takes place but a very minimal amount of violence is depicted on screen. The intended effect of this visual minimalism can be summarized through the cliché “less is more”

Another interesting point that Chute raises is that because all of the illustrations are in black and white, a lot of the violence depicted in Satrapi’s work becomes abstract due to how colourfully destructive violence normally is in the media. Chute also argues that by making the violence appear abstract, it makes it slightly more obvious that the story is being told by an adult reflecting on their childhood as children typically have trouble rationalizing violence. This leads me to the question I asked at the beginning of this entry. What allows us as humans to forget? In Satrapi’s case I believe it’s not so much about forgetting as it is subliminally displaying how the normality of violence in her youth has had a deep and profound impact on who she is as a person today.

In Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi discusses an intricate, real world narrative  that most would expect to be presented in the form of a conventional novel or book. However, by making the choice of using a graphic novel as her means for delivering this narrative she adds an entirely new dimension to her work. The iconographic panels, gutters and tiers make for a very engaging read and allow for students such as myself to further analyze Satrapi’s message at a level that would not be possible without having illustrations on the page. Below are some examples of how illustrations in Persepolis create meaning;

Firstly, the bottom panel of page 103 utilizes genre conventions for comic books, the specific case in point being the lines that illustrator David B. drew in order to place emphasis on the movement of objects and people in the panel. By doing this, Satrapi creates a much more perverse picture than what would be possible by using words exclusively. Another example of illustrations creating deeper meaning in Persepolis occurs on page 27, In the bottom panel we see the Shah of Iran speaking at a podium. There are two components that make this particular panel interesting. Firstly, the white bubble in the top left corner of the panel showing Marji saying “even worse” against a completely black backdrop can be seen to imply the binary opposition between the Shah and Marji. Secondly, the insignia seen on the podium that the Shah is speaking at appears strikingly similar to the insignia of the Luftwaffe (the German airforce in the second world war). This can be seen to be an allusion to the Nazi Regime and it’s oppressive nature.

In Conclusion, Satrapi’s decision to deliver this fascinating narrative in the form of a graphic novel significantly enhances the reader’s experience and leaves a vivid image imprinted on the reader’s mind.

Hello readers, over the past week in our Arts Studies class, we have read and critiqued Farhat Shahzad’s scholarly article from 2011 titled “The Role of Interpretive Communities in Remembering and Learning as well as attending a joint lecture presented by all of our CAP professors. Firstly, although the title of the article is rather self explanatory, Shahzad compares and contrasts the roles that authoritative figures have in interpretive communities. However, what intrigued me the most about this article was just how much it relates back to the concept of global citizenship. The views of first generation immigrant parents in this article were also intriguing in the sense that they allow for a privileged outsider such as myself to engage with world-views that I would otherwise not be exposed to.

Furthermore, the way in which the discussion in this article is shaped around the war on terror and 9/11 allows for the theme of globalization to be explored in more depth due to the sheer magnitude of the events of that day and the implications they had across the globe. From an encroachment of civil rights in the united states to the unjustified military action in Iraq and Afghanistan, the ripple of this tragedy spanned far further than New York. One interesting connection between globalization and interpretive communities brought to light by one of the interviewees in the article is that between mass media and people’s opinions on current affairs. This actually serves as an excellent example of just how interconnected the world is through both the internet and the 24 hour news cycle. Reflecting upon this, it’s incredibly hard to believe that only a century ago it would take days for news of an event similar to the magnitude of 9/11 or the war on terror to spread around the world.