In the past weeks, we examined different forms of life narratives revolving around the war in the middle east in the early 2000s. Different forms included a blog emitted real time from Baghdad by a mid-twenty male, Salam Pax, a blog by a pseudonymous teenaged girl named Riverbend and also a graphic novel, Persepolis, depicting first hand traumatic accounts of the Islamic Revolution through the lens of Marjane Satrapi as a teenaged girl. Undoubtedly, all of these forms of life narratives gave me closer insights to the situations in the middle-east that I would not have if I were to absorb the major sources presented to myself in the form of newspapers, television and other media. In the context of “globalization”, the high accessibility and the fluidity of knowledge and commodities came to play a large role in these life narratives being expressed to western audience such as myself. But the idea of globalization is only possible because of the curiosity and the human nature to explore the unknown that were present in the “western” societies. But what are these life narratives’ methods of attracting audience and what purpose do they serve in conveying their messages?

One concept that is common throughout the three narratives that is readily identified is the concept of “familiarization”. The discovering idea of “he/she is just like us” that develops within the western readership when they read these life narratives is shared through the introductory chapter of Soft Weapons by Gillian Whitlock. Pax, Riverbend, and Persepolis all successfully animates their characters through the depiction of many reactionary emotions and also by the shift in attitude towards western society and to the conflict itself through the development of the blog or the graphic narrative over time.

However, while reading The Texture of Retracing in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, where author Hillary Chute analyzes structures and the use of perspective of Persepolis, I noticed the existence of the “productive disjuncture” (Chute 103). The productive disjuncture is the inevitable reality that exists in depicting such traumatic and out of the ordinary events of the war for westerners. Through this disjuncture, readership realizes the ever so great dis-familiarity that exists in these life narratives.

But how do these familiarization and de-familiarization of events complement each other? Both of these components of attracting audience gives the readership a relative stance on the problem. The familiarity gives a “comfort zone” in which the readership are ready to explore but when they realize the reality of the situation of the dis-familiarity, they are given a wake up call. For example, in Persepolis the Marji’s childhood and naive perspective contribute to the familiarization of the western readership. Also in Riverbend, her stories of internal relationship with family and her genuine struggle within her daily lives gives a familiarity within ourselves. But on the other hand, this familiarity is further shaken when readership realizes suddenly, that they are not under threat of constant bombings and being stripped of basic human rights. These concepts coexist to further engage the audience but also, these polarized methods help depict the urgency of the situation by showing the extreme relations (familiar and unfamiliar) a reader could have with the blog or Persepolis and thus serves the purpose of life narratives to be remembered. In other words, the familiar and unfamiliar are a balancing act that a life narrative author adopts in engaging the readers with intertwined moments of comfort and tension.