Graphic Representation of Oppression and Rebellion in Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood through the Eyes of a Child

Yıl 2014, Cilt: 11 Sayı: 2, 253 - 266, 01.12.2014

Neeraj Sankhyan Suman Sigroha

Öz

This paper aims to explore the ways in which oppression and rebellion are represented in

Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. Satrapi, in this graphic novel, gives a poignant

autobiographical account of her growing up in a troubled country through an Islamic revolution, cruelties

of a totalitarian regime and a devastating war with Iraq. What makes this work unique is the telling of a

horrendous tale of trauma, oppression and rebellion through the eyes of a child using the medium of graphic

narrative. Marji’s presence in the novel as a child narrator and witness is characterized by her absence in

the sense of her inability to comprehend the complexity of the environment and circumstances that she is

a part of. Yet she struggles hard to interpret the events using her childhood consciousness and eventually

imbibes the dark realities of a cruel world that play a significant role in shaping her being. The paper

discusses the aptness of graphic medium in representing the trauma that the victims of oppression and

violence experience. Besides, the paper comments on the effectiveness of autobiography in narrating a tale

of historical significance.

Anahtar Kelimeler

oppression, Iranian revolution, autobiography, graphic novel, memory

Graphic Representation of Oppression and Rebellion in Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood through the Eyes of a Child

Öz

Kaynakça

• Bowman, S., The Functions of Role-playing Games: How Participants Create Community, Solve Problems and Explore Identity (North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2010) Chute, Hillary L., and Marianne DeKoven, “Introduction: Graphic Narrative,” MFS Modern Fiction Studies, 52/4 (Winter 2006), pp.767-82. Chute, Hillary, “Ragtime, Kavalier & Clay, and the Framing of Comics,” MFS Modern fiction studies 54/2 (2008), pp.268–301. ––– Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010) Dodge, Cole P., and Magne Raundalen, Reaching Children in War: Sudan, Uganda, and Mozambique (Bergen,: Sigma Forlag, 1991) Gerwe, Corinne F., The Orchestration of Joy and Suffering: Understanding Chronic Addiction (New York: Algora Pub., 2001) Goldin, Farideh, “Iranian Women and Contemporary Memoirs,” Iran Chamber Society (2004). Web. 19 Oct. 2015. Haaken, Janice, “The Recovery of Memory, Fantasy, and Desire in Women’s Trauma Stories: Feminist Approaches to Sexual Abuse and Psychotherapy,” in Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson (eds.),Women, Autobiography, Theory: A Reader (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998), pp.352–361. Klingman, Avigdor, “Children and War Trauma” in Ann K. Renninger and Irving Sigel (eds.), Handbook of Child Psychology, Child Psychology in Practice (New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2006), pp.619-654. Lejeune, Philippe, On Autobiography (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989) McCloud, Scott, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (New York: HarperPerennial, 1994) Murray, Christopher “Graphic Novel,” The Encyclopedia Britannica: Macropedia (2015) Poharec, Lauranne, “Showing the Unsayable: Trauma and Juxtaposition in Persepolis and A Child's Life and Other Stories” (Master's Thesis, The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico, July 2014) Popkin, Jeremy D., History, Historians, & Autobiography (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2005) Richards, Judith and Cynthia M. Williams, “Performing the Veil,” in Lan Dong (ed.), Teaching Comics and Graphic Narratives: Essays on Theory, Strategy and Practice (North Carolina: Mcfarland, 2012), pp.130-144. Satrapi, Marjane, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (New York: Pantheon Books, 2003)