Hello everyone!
We have had several reading on the war on terror and trauma. Each readings had some new perspective about trauma and a different approach of understanding and expressing it. But the most interesting reading that actually made me think about how complex the effect of trauma can be on a person is “Redeployment” by Klay Phil. After reading several readings in ASTU about trauma, I was generally left with opinions and understanding of what the author’s opinion on trauma are but Redeployment left me with questions-“What if I was in that situation?”, “Would I have felt so distant from my own family and the people I loved? “, “Would I have just become an all new person, a person I never want to become? “ .While thinking about these questions, I remembered the ‘assimilation’ of the first nations people we discussed and researched about in our Sociology course. The process of ‘Redeployment’ is like assimilating someone by ‘causing’ a person or group to become part of a different society by completely transforming him emotionally, mentally and physically. This happened to Klay when he went for the war and spent months in the violent circumstances of the war. He was made to think in a certain way to the extent that even after coming back he would think and associate colors with the situations, like he was taught in the war. The very first line of the story starts with “ We shot Dogs”. Not by accident. We did it on purpose………..I’ m a dog person, so I thought about that a lot” shows the impact left on a ‘dog lover’ like him who ‘had’ to kill dogs keeping his ‘emotions’ aside even though he didn’t want to kill them in the first place and this might be the reason that he was able to gather the strength to kill his own dog after coming back because ‘emotions’ did not really have any place in the circumstances of war he came back from. After coming from the war he just seemed detached to every emotion and people he shared an ‘emotional’ connection with whether it be his wife or his dog. This story shows how being present in the war and those circumstances completely ‘assimilated’ Klay into a complete different person, he became emotionally detached, mentally cautious and physically strong just like he was expected to be for the war. But the question is did he lose himself forever?

Hello Class!

We are almost done with the first half of the second semester and we have read some really interesting readings so far. My personal favorite was “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer. For me the novel stands out because it not only focused on the larger effects of 9/11 on the larger mass such as the people of the country, city or families living in that place but it magnified its focus on a more intimate or private level. Foer narrated a heart-warming story of how the 9/11 incidence brought changes in a normal household of New York by eloquently expressing the underlying complexities of human relationships caused by 9/11- even for a relationship deemed as stable as that of a mother and child.
Thinking about this also made me realize how the various novels we read in ASTU class share a common ground. Apart from all the books being narrated by the child protagonists, it also bring into notice the deeper impact of these traumatic event on the private life of an individual as they showcase how these events bring instability and hinder many aspects of in depth personal relationships. While, Foer highlights the rocky and unsteady relationship between Oskar and his mother and how they eventually found out the importance of supporting one another in order to surpass the burden and loss they suffered because of 9/11, Marjane Satrapi shows the journey of Marji from a little girl to a young women who encountered various changes in her understanding of personal relationship with her parents, her uncle, her friends and even god during the Iranian Revolution. It also showed how the not so favorable circumstances resulted in her going away from her parents. Obasan was also a moving story told by a five year old girl Naomi about the struggles and challenges she faced during the second world war as a Japanese Canadian and brought into limelight the pain of separating with her mother for years.
When we think about the major traumatic events we often think about larger picture and how it affects bilateral relationships between countries or states but what we often ignore is analyzing the effects of those events on the in depth private relationships within the affected community. The books we have read in ASTU so far with heart-touching stories beautifully highlight the importance of understanding of personal relationships in order to understand a deeper impact of the trauma on the affected communities and countries as a whole.

Hello Readers!

Our ASTU class has been focusing on 9/11 attacks and the trauma such events and wars cause. We are all aware of the 9/11 attacks and how it is and always will be remembered as one of the biggest traumatic event in the history. It’s not only the event that we remember but also the thousands of Americans who lost their ‘valuable’ lives in those attacks. Several Memorials have been built as a tribute to their lives, the most well-known being the National September 11 Memorial and Museum located at the World Trade Center site about which Dr. Luger discussed in the class. Marjane Satrapi quoted in Persepolis “An entire nation should not be judged by the wrongdoings of a few extremists” sums up the consequence that the majority of innocent people suffer because of the wrongdoings of few people and the 9/11 event was no exception. Along with the Americans, the 48,644 Afghan and 1,690,903 Iraqi people also paid the ultimate price for a crime they did not commit. They lost their lives too and suffered drastically. But their pain and loss is not given as much importance even though the trauma was equal on both the sides if not more. This makes me think about the discussion we had in class on Butler’s book. Butler in his book raised questions about how does one evaluate the value of an individual’s life and who decides their ‘value’? Why are lives of some people given more importance than that of others? It also makes me wonder that if we still have the ‘us’ vs ‘them’ perspective then we claiming to be ‘globalized’ and being ‘global citizens’ does not make sense to me . If the concept of ‘global citizen’ really exists then why don’t we consider everyone as one of ‘us’ and why don’t we eliminate the ‘them’ perspective?

Welcome back readers,

We started the second semester with a very poignant and heart-breaking story “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer which is about a jittery nine year old boy Oskar who lost his father in the 9/11 attacks which led him to solve the mystery of the key he discovered in his father’s closet. The attack on the World Trade Towers which is one of the major theme in the novel was a national trauma suffered by the entire nation and in the larger sense world as a whole, but the drastic impact it has on the life of an individual is strikingly portrayed by Foer in his novel.
While reading the novel, I was moved by the grief and pain Oskar went through after losing his father in the 9/11 attacks and the changes these attacks brought on both personal (Oskar’s life) and national level .It took me back to the national trauma that I encountered as a citizen of India during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Unlike the 9/11 attacks during which I was too young to truly understand the actual situation and the people around me also only relied on media for the updates, 26/11 attacks were something that I witnessed not only on the television screen but by knowing about the situation from few of my acquaintances who actually lost their loved ones in the attacks. The essence, resilience and the very soul of India’s commercial and entertainment capital- Mumbai was tested like never before five years ago, when just 10 terrorists turned the world’s fourth largest city into a war zone, holding major landmarks such as the Taj Mahal Hotel under siege for three long days and nights. 166 people died, hundreds got injured and the entire nation broke down.
Even recently, the attacks in Paris were so heart breaking and tragic. The increase of such traumatic incidences in the world today are shameful and a threat to humanity and peace. The physical damage unkind attacks like these cause gets swept away quickly with time but the mental and emotional damage these attacks cause leave ever-lasting scars. We need to come together and stand by one another and not against one another to fight these wrongdoings in order to live in love, peace and harmony.

Hello Class!

The visit to the Rare Books and Special Collections library was the topic of discussion for this week’s blogs. The class blogs were supposed to be about sharing the experience of our class field trip to the Rare Books and Special collection library at Irvin K Barber Library where we analyzed Joy Kogwa’s fond. Even though it was a field trip and we went there as a class, it was interesting to see how everyone learnt something different and had their own ‘individual’ experience despite of the whole experience being shared ‘collectively’ by the class.

Deigo’s usage of the term ‘forgetting as humiliated silence was attention-grabbing. He also made a bold statement about the ignorance of the ‘traumatic’ Japanese- Canadian’s history by the Canadian schools in reference to that term. Deigo’s opinions shared a common ground with Rachael, as she also feels the importance of educating students about the history of Japanese Canadians in order to preserve this important historical struggle. I could relate a lot to Mariana’s blog as the ‘shady’ history of Canada was shocking for international students like us. We were only aware about the existence of ‘multiculturalism’ of Canada but little did we know about its traumatic history. While all these blogs focused on the ignorance of the history of Japanese Canadians, other blogs focused more on the experience of analysing the Joy Kogwa’s fond and their ‘individual’ views about her fond.

Kaveel in his blog, referred his experience of being able to analyse ‘primary’ sources for the first time as ‘eye-opening’. He also shared pictures of various artifacts which was stimulating especially the brainstorming sheet titled ‘’SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS FROM A NOVEL IN PROGRESS” which was compared to a scholarly article by Kaveel comprising of arguments, knowledge deficit and contribution to the larger argument.  Carolina expresses her disappointment at  Joy Kogwa’s fond, providing more information about the author’s work and not the author. I also appreciate how she got inspired by the field trip and decided to personalize her blog that represents the ‘real’ her and shared a picture of her bulletin board (I personally loved it, check it out!).

Overall everyone did a great job on their blogs and I really found all of them really thought-provoking. The blog posts this week were good end for this semester.

Good luck on the short essay and the finals!

See you all next semester!

-Priya

Hello readers!

In the last few week of my ASTU class we read another interesting graphic novel “Safe Area Gorazde” by Joe Sacco, which is about Bosnian War. Joe Sacco through his moving and gut-wrenching book describes his experience during the four months he spent in Bosnia. He offers up a history of the war through interviews with survivors, many living in bombed out shells that used to be homes and office buildings. He also describes the daily life of people under the circumstances of the war and shows us how war brings out the best and worst of human nature.
After reading Joe Sacco’s “Safe Area Gorazde” and Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis”, I found out the various similarities and differences in both of these ‘graphic narratives’. One similarity that I discovered in both of these books was the way they portrayed the women characters in their graphic novel. Both Sacco and Satrapi intentionally or unintentionally made the women characters stood out from the usual ‘stereotype’ of the ‘Bosnian Muslim women’ and ‘Iranian women’ respectively. The women characters in these graphic narratives even after certain restriction are portrayed as independent women with their individual opinions and desires. Sacco shows the Bosnian Muslim women who smoked cigarettes, wore jeans, went to parties and listened to modern music. They were also shown with flirtatious personalities, boyfriends and did not wish to get married at an early age. All these characteristics of the women is far from the characteristics of a ‘stereotypical’ Bosnian woman. Quite similar to Sacco, Satrapi also shows most of these characteristics in her female characters. The protagonist Marji was represented as a curious and patriotic child whose upbringing allowed her to become a sensible, intelligent and strong-minded individual even in the most restricted environment. Another important character in ‘Persepolis’ was Marji’s mother who was portrayed as opinionated woman who believed in equal rights. She was portrayed as a fearless lady who was not afraid to stand up for the right things. She actively protested with others who were not happy with the elimination of women’s rights and violent attacks on innocent people. Marji’s mother set a great example for Marji in becoming a resolute and strong-willed individual.
Joe Sacco’s “Safe Area Gorazde” and Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis” had  differences in writing style and their portrayal of other themes like violence. One was written from an adult’s perspective whereas the other was written from a child’s perspective, Marjane was an ‘insider’ who experienced the Iranian war and was part of the ‘people’ whose life were directly influenced by the war whereas Sacco was an ‘outsider’ who was not directly influenced by the war, he shared the ‘insider’s’ views and experience despite of being an ‘outsider’. Even after all these differences, they both share a common ground as they broke the stereotype of the women from Bosnia and Iran. They changed the views of the readers that these women are not mysterious, veiled, victim of male oppression but instead strong-minded, independent, fearless, opinionated and unyielding with their own desires, wants and perspectives.

Hello readers!

The last few weeks of my ASTU class involved discussions about the different aspects of “Persepolis” as a graphical memoir. This week in my ASTU class we also discussed about “Persepolis” offering a “testimony” based on ‘eyewitness’ memory. Testimony in literature is often an autobiographical narratives or is an evidence provided by the first person account about human rights abuses, violence, war and living under conditions of social oppression. Testimonies can be perspective of an individual about their past memories which are generally about the trauma and experiences of the individual.

As discussed in my ASTU class, “Persepolis” being a personal story of Marjane Satrapi provides us with a testimony which is based on “I” or “eye” witness i.e the circumstances and experiences encountered by her during the Islamic Revolution and Iran-Iraq war. She provides us with ‘her’ intimate details and is ‘herself’ an evidence of the war. Satrapi makes it clear in her graphical memoir “Persepolis” about telling us and showing us what she ‘wants’ us to see, which is quite evident from this picture.

This is one of the reason as to why “eyewitness testimonies” are usually criticized for being an unreliable source. ‘Personal’ memory and ‘ personal perspective’ which is a major element of eyewitness testimonies in literature are usually considered to be biased and modified according to the views and wish of the individual. Eyewitness testimonies connect ‘history’ with ‘literature’ but unclear memory of an individual about the history can lead to misleading memory of the original incident. The doubt about the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies makes it a topic for debate for many scholars which according to me is justifiable because one’s memories tend to change over time or may be lost in the process of reminiscing. Marjane Satrapi wanted to show its readers the ‘real’ image of Iran during the war as she mention in the Introduction of her book “Persepolis”, “……..As an Iranian who has lived more than half of her life in Iran, I know that this image is far from the truth. This is why Persepolis was so important to me”  , but the ‘doubtful accuracy’ and ‘personal perspective’ of ‘eyewitness testimony’ makes me question about the ‘precision’ of the image of Iran she created in our minds through “Persepolis”. If Satrapi thought that the image of Iran in the mind of people was far from the truth, is it possible that the image of Iran she created through “Persepolis” is also not the complete ‘reality’? Who knows?

Hello Readers!

This week in my ASTU Class we read “Persepolis-The Story of A Childhood”. Through her unique graphic memoir “Persepolis”, Marjane Satrapi tells us the story of her childhood during which she witnessed the overthrown of Shah’s rule, the Islamic Revolution and the war between Iran and Iraq. This light hearted yet touching story revolves around the day to day life of people of Iran during the war and Islamic Revolution and is an eye opener for the people to realise that war and political repression only cause loss of life, peace and humanity.

The tagline of Persepolis, ‘the story of a childhood’ itself gives the readers an idea of the book being a story about a child’s life and is written from a child’s perspective but I disagree with the tagline which is clearly highlighted on the cover page of the book. Satrapi talks about her life as a child which involves her peers of the same age or little elder to her but when I read the book, I thought if these children really had a ‘childhood’. In fact, after reading the book I believe the childhood of the children that time was snatched by the circumstances created by the war and the Islamic Revolution. The violence, rage, inhumanity, drastic changes and loss of the loved ones these children encountered at such a young age pre-matured them and crushed their childhood. While reading the book, one evident thing to notice was Marji’s behaviour during certain events which was anything but childlike.  I am not denying the fact that this book written from a child’s perspective has an element of ‘innocence’ of a child but I cannot ignore the fact that during many events that were mentioned in this memoir, Marji’s approach towards many situation was adult like. The company of her friends who were older than her made her indulge in activities like skipping classes, lying to her mother, answering back to her mother which were inappropriate for her age. To feel like a rebellion, she smoked her first cigarette at the age of twelve and believed to have kissed her childhood goodbye as she mentions “With this first cigarette, I kissed my childhood goodbye. Now I am a grown-up”.

During the war it was not only Marji who lost her childhood but also the other children who grew up in the same circumstances. These children did not get the pleasure of having a ‘normal’ childhood which is supposed to be blooming and happy. The beauty of childhood is being carefree, innocent and unaware about the bitterness and realities of life but these children were far away from being that as they encountered the hard struggles of life at a very early age. ‘Persepolis’ for me is the story of the ‘lost’ childhood caught in the web of struggles, torture, loss and pain.

-Priya Adhikari

Hello readers!

In the last two weeks, my ASTU class revolved around various topics such as global citizens, genre, citation, narrative, memories etc. We also read Farhad Shahzad’s article on “The Role of Interpretative Communities in Remembering and Learning” which is about her research on student’s memories and learning strategies with relation to their social relationships, political orientations, cultural meanings, worldviews and historical experiences. It shows the importance of interpretative communities which according to her includes families, friends, politicians, organizations or nation states in the process of collective remembering. It also talks about how memories are given meaning by human agents, interpreted by communities and mediated by the technologies of memory like media, newspapers, internet etc. In Farhad Shahzad’s article various technologies of memories have been mentioned amongst which ‘media’ as technology of memory is the most important and talked about.

“Dealing with the biases of media, it has become hard to inform my own paradigm”. This statement is taken from a narrative written by a first year university student mentioned in Shazad’s article. While reading Shazad’s article this statement really struck me because one common thing I observed in my Global Citizen classes, which is one of the stream in CAP is the word ‘biased media’. It has not only been discussed in my ASTU class but also in Political Science and Sociology class. We have heard and seen media being biased and false at times but it still remains to be the most popular source of technologies of memory. Keeping in my mind the popularity of media as a source of information and knowledge, I believe that media nowadays is somewhere misleading and manipulating memories. Our interpretative communities are themselves influenced by it because many of the times they themselves depend on media as a source of information. Media has made people less critical. The stories on the TV news channels which is then printed in newspapers and magazines is considered to be the truth without really analysing and understanding the matter. Media has in some way monopolized people’s individual thinking and perspectives. The media passes their opinions and perspectives to us (interpretative communities) and we pass media’s perspective thinking of it to be our own to others and this goes on. If that is the case, can we say that the interpretative communities depends on media for interpretation of memories?

We also had a discussion on connect about ‘What is a Global Citizen?’ and one common opinion of the students in this discussion was the point that global citizens are the people who are ‘aware’ about the happenings and issues of the world. I was one of the student with this opinion but after my two weeks in ‘Global Citizens’ stream of CAP and especially after reading Shazad’s article in my ASTU class that had narratives from university students about their difficulty to actually figure out the real situations, problems, circumstances and their own paradigm because of biased media left me with several questions in my mind- As a global citizen we need to be ‘aware’ with the happenings around the world, but the question is are we really ‘aware’ or are we made to think we are? Is the so called ‘reliable’ information actually ‘reliable ’enough? And can we really be ‘Global Citizens’ if all we have is false news and biased opinions.

I wonder………

-Priya Adhikari

Welcome to UBC Blogs. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!