Our views vastly change as we get older. The same things we saw as a child are now drastically different once we see it again as adults. This point is particularly important in Marjane Satrapi’s graphic autobiography Persepolis. The story portrays Satrapi’s childhood during the time of the Iranian Revolution in 1979. During the sessions of this week, we looked into the historical context of the graphic narrations and explored the genre of comics.
Understanding the background context for certain novels and narrations is extremely important in understanding the text. For example, when I read the novel The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, it was important to know that the story was set in Western Germany in the 1970s, a time when the fear of Communism was prevalent. Understanding the history behind not only help us understand the text, but also gives us insight on what influenced the author’s writing. One thing that I noticed was the European tapestry looking figures in her graphic narration.
The very famous medieval wall tapestry known as the Bayeux Invasion of England tapestry. A similar portray can be found in Persepolis on page 11.
In addition, her use of black and white in her graphics is similar to those old French comic styles as mentioned in class. These European elements in her drawings could be from her background in studying a French non-religious school.
Furthermore, understanding the political tension in Iran of the time helps explain some of the panels in the narration. For instance, Marji’s cheerful reaction on page 84 after Iraq got bombed by Iranian bombers. Her patriotism and hatred for a demonized foreign force is similar to those of Amercians during the War on Terror era after 9/11. The propaganda against Iraq by Iran was one of the tactics employed my the Iranian government to unite the people, distracting them from the real threat and people which is the oppressive government itself.
Another key aspect we explored during class was the genre of comic itself. A comic is generally seen as low information literature and usually hold minimal meaning. They are generally easy reading and have simple story lines, a form of text used primarily for entertainment. But in 1991, American Cartoonist Art Spiegelman revolutionized the norms of comics by publishing the graphic novel “Maus”. The novel portrayed the events during WWII and the Holocaust using the Cats as the Germans and the Mouse as the Jews. It was the first graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize.
In Persepolis, there were several scenes or events that could only be conveyed graphically. On page 13, we can see that her God is similar to those of Western Christianity, and that she describes him to resemble Karl Marx. Plus the graphics portrays her interactions with God in her dreams, which is hard to achieve through solely writing. Also the graphic portrayal of her Uncle, Anoosh, greatly minds me of Charlie Chaplin from The Great Dictator, in which he made an inspiring and revolutionary speech. Like Chaplin, Anoosh wanted to seek justice and righteousness, and we can see his determination in page 62.
These couple sessions have got me thinking of so many questions and reflecting on so many past experiences. Such as “If a child was to read Satrapi’s Graphic Narrative, how would he/she interpret it differently from us?”. I remember recently watching the cartoon series Avatar: The Legend of Korra, and although it is cool and action-packed (the stuff kids liked), it had a very mature underlying message which includes the dangers of socialism, be in harmony with nature and the dangers of anarchism.