In my Arts Studies (ASTU) class this week, we were asked to read the coming of age graphic memoir Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Persepolis is her memoir of her life prior to and after the Iranian revolution and the onset of the Iran Iraq War. What stood out to me about the memoir was how “outside the box” it was. Satrapi went the unconventional route by composing a historic memoir using a graphic novel. Also, unlike most memoirs about the Iranian Revolution, this is the revolution through the eyes of a child.
Throughout the year, my ASTU class has been studying different types of memoirs. From knowledge gained, I will analyze how Persepolis is in fact a counter narrative to the genre of memoirs and of Western views of Iran’s revolution. From here, I will provide insight into how graphic memoirs can be a success not for just historical memoirs but marginalized groups.
Unlike most memoirs, Persepolis is a graphic novel therefore; strategies to analyze and interpret Satrapi’s publication are different. Graphic novels require more attention to detail as one is not simply reading text but also paying attention to the characters, their expressions and what is going on in the background. Despite further steps to analyze a graphic novel, visual cues make it a much more streamlined process. Perhaps this allows for a better understanding of the text. Second, the simple fact the book was told through the eyes of a young Iranian girl is also a counter narrative. In Western Society, we think of Iran as the “evil” state so to have a different viewpoint on the whole issue of the revolution makes for a very interesting read in regards to usual ideas of what a memoir should be. We see how a moderately religious family has to conform to newly imposed standards forced by the newly formed government and so on. Narratives we see in Western society do not make any mention on how difficult it was for secular families to fit into the new Iran. The non-western perspective of the book is what stood out to me the most when first reading Persepolis.
Graphic novels as memoirs are surfacing so therefore, I believe it is possible to allow graphic novels to be further used in the memoir genre. According to Couser, memoirs can serve as a “threshold genre for marginalized populations” (31). This holds to be true I believe after examining the graphic memoir Maus by Art Spiegelman. It is the memoir of his father’s life in Auschwitz as an inmate during the Second World War. I feel that the imagery in graphic novels is what makes them generally liked by those who read them. Especially for historical events, imagery makes it feel much more authentic. Of course Maus is different in how the memories are conveyed. Spiegelman decided to use cats to portray Nazis and mice to portray the inmates of Auschwitz. Graphic memoirs are an excellent platform that hopefully marginalized groups can soon use to further awareness of their plights. Persepolis was helpful in revealing to me the untapped potential graphic novels can serve.
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Works Cited
Couser, G. Thomas. Signifying Bodies: Disability in Contemporary Life Writing. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan, 2009. Print.
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. Paris: L’Association, 2000. Print.
Spiegelman, Art. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. New York: Pantheon, 1986. Print.