HOLA Bloggers!
As we continue to analyze in more detail the content in Satrapi’s Persepolis, we have recently looked at Hillary Chute’s The Texture of Retracing in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis in our ASTU class. Chute talks, among other things, about the elements that have made Persepolis have an important impact on readers like recognized American journalist Gloria Steinem who says about the book: “You’ve never seen anything like Persepolis – Marjane Satrapi may have given us a new genre.”
The graphic style that Satrapi uses in her memoir is unique and has called the attention of scholars like Chute because it is an essential part of why it has caused such a great impact. As Chute segments the genre in which the book is written, she points out the simple illustrations that are used in Persepolis and the “child’s-eye rendition of trauma”(Chute, 98) which contribute to the reader’s understanding of how memory works.
I highly recommend that you take a look at my friend Therese Barrozo’s blog. I believe that she brings up really interesting points in relation to what Chute mentions in her work but also adds to the conversation with the question “Does mainstream media normalize violence?”.
Therese tells us that her experience of seeing violence in the mainstream media like movies, has really impacted her and that the way in which violence is portrayed is normal to the point of “being part of their lifestyle” as she refers to the characters in some movies.
Analyzing the content Therese has exposed on the normalizing of violence I want to relate this issue to my own experience.
As I wrote in my first blog post, my country has recently been going through a devastating period of violence where thousands of people have been killed and the media reporting all of the violent acts have no censorship when it comes to showing extreme acts of brutality. In some cases we, as Mexican society have been exposed to images of mutilated body parts like heads, hanging bodies, and other ways of torture that relate to what Satrpi depicts on page 51 on the first part of Persepolis.
It is indeed sad to think that we are used to the display of shocking images like those and that even though it has a strong emotional impact on anyone who is exposed to that kind of imagery, it is “normal” for people living in the conflict areas.
Being able to relate in some way to the violence present in Persepolis has made me realize how hard it must be for Satrapi to represent everything that she went through. She explains: “I write a lot about the Middle East, so I write about violence. Violence today has become so normal, so banal – that is to say everybody thinks its normal. But its not not normal.” (Satrapi cited in Chute, 99)
~Gabo
Sources:
Chute, Hillary. “The Texture of Retracing in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis.” Women’s studies Quarterly 36.1&2 (Spring/Summer 2008): 92-110.