Preview

Persepolis As A Postmodern Fiction

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
846 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Persepolis As A Postmodern Fiction
Maria Anwar
M. Phil Literature – 2nd
Presentataion on “Persepolis as a postmodern fiction”

What makes Persepolis a Postmodern Fiction?

A mix of High art and popular culture:
Marjane Satrapi's ''Persepolis'' is the latest and one of the most palatable examples of a postmodern genre, an autobiographical novel in form of a comic-book which tells the history of Iran from Marjane’s point of view. Persepolis is a postmodern graphic novel that blurs the boundaries between popular culture and high art by mixing political history and autobiography in a comic-book version. Marjane uses the medium of a graphic novel to share her own story. Throughout the story the reader watches Marjane’s highs (love, family, and friends) and lows (break ups, deaths, fears) and Satrapi continuously narrates how her past, her life through the Iranian Revolution shaped the person she has become. Persepolis can be categorized as a memoir as it focuses on a series of related events, includes a sense of higher emotional levels, and have descriptions of events that show they are significant.
Use of Pastiche:
The pleasingly simple, hand-drawn characters and flat abstractly patterned backgrounds show the influence of German Expressionism, Persian miniature painting and shadow puppetry in the form of a Pastiche. It’s an experimentation with the traditional form of novel and literary forms. We see irony, humour and play when Marjane criticizes social practices, religious fundamentalism and Capitalistic ideology prevalent in Iran through this graphic novel. History is usually a serious subject but in Persepolis it has been dealt with in a comic way.

Metafiction:

Persepolis is a Metafiction as it involves self-reflexivity, rejects conventional plot and violates narrative levels.
Metafiction attempts to blur the line between fiction and reality. In Persepolis Marjane often breaks out of the narrative to address the reader, or comments on the story or events of the novel. The captions in the panel

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Camp X Book Report

    • 1544 Words
    • 7 Pages

    This book report discusses the plot, significant characters, setting (e.g., time of the story took place, historical background), problems and resolutions, themes or messages of the story. A reflection of the author’s writing style will be presented followed by a conclusion.…

    • 1544 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Book Review of Persepolis

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Author of the novel, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, is Marjane Satrapi. The theme in Persepolis is to be aware of where you came from and the history of your family and also the culture that you live by. The subject is linked to the title of the book because; the word Persepolis is a noun, it means an ancient city, the subject to this novel is about how modern day people want to change the traditions of their older culture. The genre is a graphic novel, which is a novel with illustrations that go along with the words on the pages. Graphic novels help the reader understand what he or she is reading by having pictures that go along with the reading. The book Persepolis, I thought, overall, was a good book. Graphic novels are easier for me to read because of the illustrations that the book provides. As a graphic novel, Persepolis enabled me to gain force because reading through the frames of images takes less time than reading multiple sentences on a page. So, Satrapi found ways to slow down the story to draw emphasis to important moments. Marji’s childhood is passing by, but unlike in many written texts, it feels as if a year goes by far more quickly. Because it is a graphic form, Persepolis combines pictures and text to tell a story, so my reading time is combines both the time it takes to read the text and the time it takes to analyze the pictures. In addition, since the text and the pictures often tell two different stories, the sense of time in the story is further complicated. I also liked the book because of all of the historical facts about the culture and lifestyle of people living in Iran and I liked how the author shows what it takes to grow up and mature in a society like in this book.…

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The graphic narrative Persepolis uses black and white comics to tell the story of Marjane’s life. The drawings in the pictures are cartoons, however the pictures have lots of meaning and purpose behind them for the reader to think about. For example, in the chapter, “The Sheep”, the last panel in the chapter on page 71 shows young Marjane floating through space. This picture…

    • 764 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, the author uses words as well as illustrations in order to deliver the story of a young Iranian girl raised by a modern family in a traditionalist country. Satrapi composes her illustrations to reflect the current emotion or state of her character in order to accentuate certain events. She often uses splash frames and incorporates Persian flourishes into her artwork. Some character issues that are expressed through panel composition are Marjane’s identity crises as modern or traditionalist and Iranian or Austrian, her feelings of isolation in deserted Tehran, her feelings of distance and helplessness when leaving her parents at the airport, and homesickness brought up by blatant differences…

    • 1353 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The story of a girl who experienced many life challenges like death of loved ones and war can have a huge impact on people of all ages and races. Persepolis is worthy of being sold all over because the powerful message that gets sent across is that sadly the only thing that can catch our attention about what's going on around the world and around our communities is death. When we hear of someone dying because of a certain situation we being to realize that such situations are really happening and they cannot be ignored and Persepolis shows a very good example of why death is the key to reality because death is a scary thing to think about and its a way of getting a message…

    • 1081 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Persepolis

    • 1778 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Amazing, intriguing, and unimaginable are just a few words to describe how I felt about Persepolis while I read this true life story of Marjane Satrapi. This book has helped me to see all the life struggles, good times, and adversities that Marji faced between the ages of nine to thirteen. The Islamic Revolution had such a daunting effect in the Middle East, especially in the county of Iran where Marji and her family resided.…

    • 1778 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Persepolis is a story of childhood through Marjane Satrapi’s childhood in Iran. Much of the graphic novel focusses on the author’s family during the Iran-Iraq War. The story is a personal memoir of Satrapi’s own life, which also leads into a larger event in history. Satrapi is the protagonist throughout the entire graphic novel. The character of Marji’s growth is shaped by her personal history and her community and demonstrates the theme of the inescapability of culture and family in determining one’s identity.With this also comes people in her life that have great impacts.…

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Marjane Satrapi, whatever her intent was for Persepolis, details in the novel the many factors that led to the person she became at the end of the story. Through Family ties, through traveling abroad, and through living in a war torn country, became the compassionate, dignified Iranian woman that decide to move to France, away from the turmoil of her country. Of all of the characteristics that make up Satrapi in the book, her grandmother’s influence was one of the most…

    • 960 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Persepolis Book Report

    • 686 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Persepolis is a historical book yet an entertaining story of a girl during a frightening time in an important era in her country. Author, Marjane Satrapi writes about her experience in Iran as a child. She includes humor as well as sentimentality in this book to express her view on how times were. As a reader of this book it helped me understand the dark times that the Iranian people faced. With this book being a memoir it further helped understand the Islamic Revolution and the actions taken by the people of Islam in their efforts to stay safe during the war with Iraq. Marjane Strapi brought her experience to life as she wrote this book.…

    • 686 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The graphic novel Persepolis is a two-part series by author Marjane Satrapi that consists of Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood and Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return. The graphic novels carry the reader through Satrapi’s life as a child in Iran, her migration to Austria to get away from the war and its effects, and back to the war-torn country of Iran when Satrapi has matured into a lady. The novels aim to highlight the author’s experiences she faces both in her childhood and her adolescence.…

    • 1703 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Religion is a reoccurring and important theme in the graphic novel, ‘Persepolis’ by Marjane Satrapi. It is an autobiography about a young girl, Marjane, who is brought up during the Shah’s regime and the Islamic revolution.…

    • 138 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Maus, by Art Spiegelman, is a graphic novel in which the characters are represented as animals. The comic collection is full of juxtapositions. Vladek and Artie represent the opposition of past and present. The story also illustrates the opposition in the cultural contexts of Nazi occupied Poland and Rego Park, New York. The format of the book contrasts images with language, and the characters of the book depict the opposition of father and son. These juxtapositions serve to emphasize the transmission of conflict from one generation to the next, as with Artie and Vladek. Vladek is telling his story as a father, about the cultural context of Poland in the past. Artie is listening to his father as a son, living in the present New York.…

    • 356 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A form of literature that is rapidly growing more popular today is that of the graphic novel. This unique type of text has been associated with and been more commonly called the comic book. But, in recent years, this form of literature has grown more powerful through the realization of all the values it offers and has thus caused scholars to adopt other more sophisticated names such as graphic novel or graphic narrative. Books that have become sources of scholarly learning have been categorized under these titles to make the field sound more appropriate than comic book, which could be mistakenly perceived by others as something that may be childish or adolescent. Such a thing would cost the literature its’ credibility and cause people to lose…

    • 1416 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The projection of postmodern aspects in its form, purpose, and meaning create a relation into which the reader can actively participate to understand the theme while relating it to her/himself. The theme of the story is manifested through the ambiguity the plot embeds, questioning and challenging the moral beliefs the reader knows. The postmodern aspects this novel that construct the meaning are, the unusual ending that forces the reader to question and interpret the purpose of the ending, piecing together the structure of the narrative that constantly interacts with the reader to question the actual meaning of narrative fiction, and finally using all that knowledge to understand the main theme and meaning of the novel through its postmodern aspects that exhibit some kind of ambiguity for the reader. Margret Atwood uses these postmodern characteristics as a base or part of the novel, manipulating the form to create ambiguity in the novel’s purpose, form, and meaning ultimately for the reader to realize the…

    • 1643 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sadasdad

    • 1176 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Author’s draw upon the complex interplay between modes of representation and their ability to shape meaning, in order to reflect upon their attitudes towards the past. This interaction manifests in the examination of the conflicting strengths and limitations of history and memory throughout Mark Baker's memoir The Fiftieth Gate and Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis as both texts place emphasis on the inherent bias of acts of inclusion, emphasis and omission. Consequent of the inability to objectively capture definitive truth, all modes of representations of the past are unassailably mediated by the author and thus the purpose of the construction is crucial to the perspective of the past offered. By limiting the pervasive influences of historical and contemporary zeitgeist through the examination of multiple mediums, sources and perspectives the more holistic representation of the past informs the individual’s awareness of the universality of the human experience by informing the present of the past.…

    • 1176 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays