Resources on Ideology

Oxford Dictionary definition

History of Ideology

Ideology and the ruling class 

60-second intro to ideology on youtube

For information on Althusser and his idea of Ideological State Apparatuses, click here.

Persepolis and Childhood

 As some of you have noted, both Maus and Persepolis tell first person stories, but Satrapi's book, in contrast to Spiegelman's, narrates the tale of the Iranian Revolution and its aftermath (see the post on resources on Iran below for more detail) from the perspective of a child.  How does that perspective affect the story Satrapi tells, especially given the stereotypical view of comics as a medium for kids?  Oliver's post below asks us to think, in various ways, about how the school setting functions as a site for exploring the role of ideology in everyday life.   How do you define ideology? How might comics--especially comics focusing on childhood and schooling--provide a unique purview for the exploration of ideology? 

Check out the clip below for more on how Satrapi's own childhood played into the construction of Persepolis.

Persepolis (pg.1-150): Finding Your Own Beliefs

Throughout Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi receives many different versions of similar information, mainly within school. Specifically on page 44 of my book, when Satrapi is punished in school for pointing out how the teacher was the one who once told them the Shah, recently exiled due to the revolution, was chosen by God. The pattern continues as she becomes older and more bold in her beliefs.

Media is another herald of information pointed out by Satrapi. Obviously media, can and/or is biased. Skepticism is then expected to follow. Starapi's father almost always checks the information he gets. On page 135, Marjane's mother says to her father "Even when you see something with your own eyes, you need confirmation from the BBC". This made me feel like Satrapi was heavily emphasizing on how people receive information as one of her main subjects. 

Is Satrapi asking the reader to look at different viewpoints on information distributed to the masses, through education and media? Does our educational system follow an unbiased document of history, or do these world events change our prewritten history based on specific beliefs? What kind of affect does this distorted, or tweaked, information have on students specifically?

Persepolis, 1-150

The graphic novel deals a lot with reputation and public perception. There is propaganda, prideful storytelling, and a lot of "hero" and "martyr" being thrown around. How is this reflected in Persepolis herself? How about her shifting opinion of her parents, and even her own self-image?

There is obviously a lot of discrimination within the text, towards a litany of circumstances. So where does privilege lie in this society, and how can we see it operating through the first half of the graphic novel? (Effects, rebellion, acceptance...)

Giving respect to form, what are some of everyone's favorite panels in terms of aesthetic and visual content? How do its qualities lend themselves to the story?

Resources on Iran and Iranian Revolution

Brief History of Iran

BBC timeline

NY Times Guide to Iranian Revolution 

BBC documentary

Introduction to Marjane Satrapi

Marjane Satrapi was born in Iran in 1969 and lived through some of the most difficult years of the nation's history. Satrapi's family was a politically-active one with members critical of both the Shah of Iran and the Islamic regime that came to replace him. In Persepolis, Satrapi tells the story of her own childhood but also explores the complexities of Iranian history, the politics of imperialism, the strictures of religious fundamentalism, and the possibilities for survival in exile.

Like Maus, Marjane Satrapi's graphic narrative, Persepolis, is a memoir that marries text and image to tell a story of historical and personal rupture. Persepolis tells the story of Satrapi's childhood experiences during the time of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and her later exile from her homeland. How is Satrapi's story different from the usual coming-of-age narratives we are used to reading in novels and short stories? How does the visual aspect of Persepolis allow Satrapi to show/ not show the graphic violence perpetrated during the bloody revolts and warfare that took place in Iran during the time she was growing up? Persepolis has recently been made into a film. Is Persepolis the graphic narrative already somehow cinematic?

Maus II Post (by Matt Evans)

One of the most brutal and graphic scenes that I noticed during the reading was while they were fleeing Auschwitz and there was the scene where he compared the prisoner that was shot and killed to the squirming dog he saw shot during his childhood. We see legitimate animals used throughout the novel alongside the animalian human beings. It's generally some kind of side details (the rats, the bugs, the dog) that weren't necessary to moving the story forward. Did the utilization of real animals next to animalian humans take you outside of the story at all? Do you think that Spiegelman made it work/did it enhance (or did it not work for you) and why?

In terms of the photographs, we see lots of photographs throughout the course of the two volumes (volume one we see the picture that Anja and so on,) but at the end of volume two, we see an ACTUAL picture of Vladek. Why do you think Spiegelman chose to use a real picture, rather than just animate one like he did throughout the rest of the two volumes?