Arab Literary Travels

Ruby Packenham-Behan: Conclusion

Whilst Persepolis is a bildungsroman following Marjane Satrapi’s personal journey through a creative literary form, its action takes place against a background of intricate ingrained ideas. Marji’s story is not only personal to her but represents a reality for many Iranians in the post-revolutionary years through the years of combat. Marji survives bombings and protests, lives through a segregated society through gender, an oppressive and violent government and leaves and returns Iran multiple times. Persepolis offers an eye-opening experience as to what living through the Iranian Revolution and the post-revolutionary years was like for a female through an unconventional creative medium. Even the title of the graphic novel suggests that this is a piece that is mourning the changing of Iran, whilst simultaneously paying respects to it and expressing a level of admiration.

In my map, I have attempted to show not only Marji’s story but also follow the ideologies and complex relationships that come with it. I thought it was important to map the story along with the ideologies and historical context that follow it as Iran remains an enigma to the Western world, with preconceived notions Iran can easily be portrayed as the villain. We see through Marji’s experience in Vienna that her unconventional western upbringing and culture has limited her assimilation into the society, making her deny her own identity as an Iranian. By sharing her story through the medium of the graphic novel, Satrapi offers a neutral platform, one could read the story with no context at all and still understand and take from it.
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To conclude, I hope my map offers a deeper understanding of the formation and existence of the Islamic State of Iran and the conflicting views and political parties within that.
 

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