Hey fellow ASTU bloggers, for today’s post I will be talking about the style in which Persepolis is drawn. I am interested in this as I myself enjoy drawing, and I do like comic books. I grew up reading a lot of comic books, and even created my own that I kept going for quite some time. The style that Marjane Satrapi uses intrigues me, and in the three weeks that I have been in Arts, I have realized that we ask a lot of questions. Therefore I ask: why does Satrapi use this style for her graphic narrative?
What immediately catches my attention is the absence of colour as well as the simplicity of the art. Typically in literature black symbolizes darkness (obviously), sadness, death, etc. The Islamic Revolution, as well as the Iran-Iraq War in which Satrapi lives through is a tragic and dark time, so the large presence of black really suits the mood. There is a fair amount of comic relief, which in my opinion is a good addition to her book, otherwise it could have been a little too somber.
The simplicity of the drawing style also makes me wonder. Is the aim of the this simple drawing-style to direct the attention to the topic of the story as opposed to the drawings themselves? I think that Satrapi really wants her audience to understand her message instead of getting lost in the images, possibly looking for meaning that isn’t there.
Marjane Satrapi really takes advantage of the genre to convey her story. Today in class, we got together in small groups to briefly discuss Persepolis, and we talked about how the story simply would not be the same without these drawings. Some of these images are very abstract and dark, invoking a lot of emotion into the text.
I obviously do not know Marjane’s true intentions, but this is what she has led me to believe in her interesting genre and style.
One Comment
Hey Ryan,
I found your post to be quite an interesting read. Your point about Satrapi’s simple illustration style really made me think as I’ve covered this myself in both a blog post and our most recent ASTU essay. While I agree with your point about this being used to effectively focus the reader on the topics being presented, I found that this was also used in order to demonstrate the conformity that the Iranian revolution brought upon the people of Iran with the implementation of the veil. As well as that, do you think that some amount of the illustrations are used to convey the innocence of Marji?