Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi
Persepolis is a memoir about the author’s life during the war between Iraq and Iran. The novel begins with Satrapi’s childhood in Iran and later moves into her education in Vienna, Austria, then finally ends with her return to Iran for her college education.
The main character of Marjane can be considered transnational in multiple ways. Primarily she was born in Iran and lives there until the age of thirteen when she is sent to a French school in Austria. Thereby her cultural identity is beginning to change. Her education in Austria means she learns French and when she returns to Iran this sets her apart from others. She also becomes accustomed to the western society of Austria and is then shocked when she returns to Iran and is made to wear the veil again. This brings in the question of which culture she now belongs to and whether or not she is now a hybrid culture. A hybrid culture can be the outcome of transnationalism as it is a combination of two different cultures. However not everyone would regard themselves as a hybrid culture and instead would simply say that they belong to the culture that they were born into as it can be a more dominant feature of their life.
Additionally, when Marji moves to Austria, she meets her roommate, Lucia, who only speaks German. This creates a language barrier between the two of them, isolates Marji from the only person she knows. However, after a little while they realise that one way to communicate with each other is to write what they mean as pictures. Arguably this could be seen as a comment on the graphic novel itself as the pictures aid what the author is trying to convey. Transnationalism can lead to language barriers between immigrants and natives; this can cause conflict and isolation, which could reduce the level of transnationalism. However, Satrapi gives a solution to the problem and shows that we don’t always need words to communicate with others.
Moreover, there is a moment in the novel where Marjane asks her parents to bring her back some items from Turkey, such as posters of Iron Maiden and Kim Wilde. This is because during the war, imports had been banned as the borders had closed. The image to the left shows the influence of Western ideals on typical Muslim dress.
Satrapi, Marjane. (2008). Persepolis. Vintage. Page 131
Thus a hybrid culture has formed as she is embracing the elements of American culture and applying it to her Iranian culture. However, the controversy this causes is explored a couple of frames later where she is accosted by two members of the “Guardians of the Revolution” who, as seen below, try and bring Muslim women back to the straight and narrow. By wearing sneakers, a denim jacket and tight denim jeans, Marjane is seen as disrespectful because she is not portraying herself as a proper Muslim woman. Additionally, the headscarf plays a vital role in this moment as just because she is wearing it higher up on her head she is considered as a whore.
Satrapi, Marjane. (2008). Persepolis. Vintage. Page 133
Thereby, Satrapi’s novel can be seen as transnational as it explores different ideals that cultures uphold. To others they can be viewed as repressive such as how Muslim women are forced to cover their whole bodies and hair. Yet this is because people can be ignorant towards other cultures, as they do not understand the reasoning behind it. Thus Persepolis can be seen as a bildungsroman along with a novel that is trying to bridge the divide between different cultures.
Finally, the novel itself was originally published in French and later translated into English. As a piece of literature it is already transnational as it does not originate from this country. Without transnationalism novels such as Persepolis would not be widely available for us. When the idea of creating a film of Persepolis was first introduced Marjane decided that they would do it in French as she believed that it would convey the true message of the story instead of parts of it being lost in translation.
References:
- Satrapi, Marjane. (2008). Persepolis. Vintage.