Hello All,
Recently my university English class has been reading Persepolis, a graphic memoir written by accomplished graphic narrative writer Marjane Satrapi. “Persepolis, a Story of a Childhood”, is Satrapi’s depiction of life growing up in Iran during the revolution and the Iran-Iraq war.
As we were preparing to study this book, I asked myself what knowledge I already had about Iran and the social and political turmoil experienced by the people there. I thought about a concept generated by educational scholar Farhat Shahzad, that of “interpretive communities”, or, the groups that influence an individual’s remembering and learning. I read Persepolis when I was younger, but after that was mostly left with emotional imprints from the story, rather than a comprehensive understanding of what the political unrest had been about. Looking for persoanl impressions of the country, I talked to a close friend who emigrated from Iran when she was younger in order to see if I could gain any cultural insight that could be compared to Persepolis. A concept which she (my friend) placed massive significance on was the family. She hightlighted the greater sense of connection that seems to be felt among extended family in Iran, as opposed to the West’s focus on the nuclear family, that is, when the focus is on the family at all. The support system of the individual is made up of many different extended family members, something that can be seen in current Iran and Iran during the time of Persepolis. A large portion of Marji’s (the young girl voice in the comics) stories involve family members and their stories. Aspects of life that enrich the image of Iran in Persepolis are introduced through the inclusion of various family members. The ‘revolving door’ of characters entering bring their own memories that they relay to Marji, giving her strong impressions of how certain things are. The story of Marji’s grandfather being a prince was deliverd by her father, the information about inprisonment and torture comes from friends of her parents (who are treated like family) and many of her ideas of heroism and political thought come from her uncle. After being exposed to different viewpoints, she often takes them on with a vengeance, which speaks to her naivety as a child but also to the trust she has in her family to know best.
Nicola Cox
