I am back with another blog post!
I hope most of you guys had a good long weekend and filled your stomach with lots and lots of turkey! Throughout this week in our ASTU class, we followed up on Persepolis by reaching an article written by Hillary Chute that retraces the memory of Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis”.
– Hillary Chute
After a deep analysis, I would like to turn our attention and focus on a specific section within the article that is titled “STYLE AND TRAUMA”: THE CHILD” (Chute, 98). I was personally intrigued with how Chute analyzed Satrapi’s style of images and she even brought some impressive points and examples into the light that I would have never spotted.
One of the examples that caught my attention is the mode of representation, especially for historical trauma. Persepolis uses a technique to produce and call attention to the “horror of history” (Chute, 98) of mixing black and white images and the idea of Avant-Garde which gives it a certain degree of abstraction. On the contrary, graphic novels that have color in them are very specific to meanings/implications because of how distinct each color could represent something. Satrapi explains that “Violence today has become something so normal… But it’s not normal… To draw it and put it in color- the color of flesh and the red of the blood, and so forth-reduces it by making it more realistic” (Chute, 98). You may ask which is more effective in terms of historical trauma, color or no color? In my opinion, black and white could be more effective than color because of how often we see pictures in the media with color in them and the numbing effect towards our attention to how traumatic or serious the situation is. The situation becomes normalized, meaning we feel like these events happen so often and we become quick to look past them. We don’t stop to think how impacting they are. By looking at images in black and white, the images would make people understand the trauma more, as Isiah had said in class “more straight forward and honest”. It may also change one’s perspective in depicting an image by forcing an individual to interpret the situation from a more critical standpoint and remember the images more clearly. To my audience who disagrees with me, why do you think color is more effective in terms of historical trauma? And for those who agree that black and white images are more effective, are there any additional points that you would like to add? Feel free to leave your comments below!
All in all, it was refreshing how our class first read about Persepolis and then really dissected the article afterwards. I am going to leave it at that and let you guys think about that question!
– Martin
