Persepolis: From Comic to Animation

Now that you have read the graphic novel and watched the film adaptation of Persepolis, let’s consider the significance of medium and genre in conveying meaning, especially with themes as complex and controversial as the ones presented in Persepolis.

(i) In an interview, Marjane Satrapi recalls initially she thought that adapting Persepolis, a comic, for the screen would not work well (although she is satisfied with the way the film turned out) – “Comics are a medium that exists by itself. It doesn’t need literature or cinema to exist. It’s a completely perfect medium. Besides, the relationship that the reader would have with the comics would be completely different from the one they would have with the movie. By definition, the reader of the comic is active: you have frames and between them the reader’s imagination becomes activated. In a movie you’re completely passive. That’s the way it is. You sit and watch the film.” In the same interview, Satrapi also elaborates on why she wanted to use the medium of comics for Persepolis – “The reason I chose the media of comics is because it belongs to the popular arts. I didn’t want to make any artistic work that would only be conceivable by the elite. I wanted people to have access to it. I thought I could make it work with degrees of knowledge; they would have different layers of understanding. It needed to be understandable to everybody.”

Scott McCloud (whose Ted Talk we watched) in Understanding Comics (1994) sees comics as a medium that is incomplete until it is read, “until the reader sutures the numerous interruptions in the text.” McCloud talks about two essential components of a comic: the icon and the gutter. The icon is a representation of an object, and it can be more or less iconic—i.e., more abstract or more realistic. McCloud also talks about how our self-perception is an iconic one (except when in front of a mirror), and therefore we can relate to or enter comics characters' perceptions with greater ease (36). The gutter is the liminal space between panels, a gap, McCloud argues, that the reader must close (67). "Comics panels," he indicates, "fracture both time and space, offering a jagged, staccato rhythm of unconnected moments. But closure allows us to connect these moments and mentally construct a continuous, unified reality" (67).

This means that “[u]nlike a film reel, in which sequential images blend together through mechanical processes, comics emphasize the space between images and leave the reader to bridge it. So with McCloud the reader is put front and center, instilling closure between panels, imbuing icons with meaning, and uniting word and image” (Darda 33).

On the other hand, some critics view the animated film as a more fluid. One critic argues that “[t]he comic is amazingly complex in the details and comprehension of each event from Marjane’s life, a complexity the film is forced to abandon. Yet, at the same time, through its condensation and summarizing of episodes, the film becomes more symbolic and fluid than the comic” (Hernández 80). In fact, Hernández thinks about films such as these as “animated self-portraits” and explains how “women’s animated self-portrait has surpassed its confinement in the field of independent short films – and its limited distribution – to reach mass audiences, opening the way for original creations that establish a difference with customary models for blockbuster animation – generally aimed at children and young audiences” (88) and that “the animated female self-portrayal of the new generation comes closer to documentary and has more universal concerns, appealing to a wider audience and reaching theatrical distribution” (73).

Reflect, in detail, on your experiences with reading the graphic novel and watching the film version. Reflect on how the medium and genre affects elements such as the meaning, purpose, audience, comprehension, level of complexity, self-portrayal, portrayal of grief/loss/trauma, use of humor, agency of characters’, involvement/imagination of readers/viewers, and so on. Which genre/medium felt more effective to you, personally, as the reader and viewer and why? What affordances and constraints does each genre/medium allow for or restrict?

(ii) Think back to our discussions about grand narratives and the need to have individual voices and stories to counter these narratives. Satrapi’s work can be seen as that re-telling of history, an attempt to deconstruct the grand narrative. One critic views Satrapi’s graphic novel as a kind of witnessing and narration of counter-history - “[t]hrough its emphasis on the importance of witnessing, the narrative elevates counter-historical narratives that are mostly unknown by a Western reading public, such as Iran’s political history in the twentieth century, the mass executions of political prisoners following the 1979 Revolution, and other losses that populate its pages” (Nabizadeh 154).

At the same time, “the story attests to the conditions under which survival persists, often unexpectedly. Persepolis thus reminds the reader of the precarity of survival, a condition that is always contingent on the unfolding of circumstances—political, social, material—and the ways in which liveliness can be encountered under the most difficult circumstances… the text depicts strategies for survival under repressive circumstances, particularly in relation to women’s lives” (154-5).

However, Persepolis is not just a linear, traditional narrative of survival. There is loss, mourning, trauma, and depression, but there is also celebration of life, relationships, love, and humor.

Our killjoy survival kit is similarly a way of putting together our survival strategies, not only those that let us be “killjoys” – i.e. call out social injustices, but also ones that focus on taking care of ourselves, ensuring our well-being, using humor, making connections with others, finding our communities, and so on.

Think about and reflect on how Persepolis achieves this balance, between celebration and survival, between being a “killjoy” and being happy, between being willful and self-preserving on one hand, and being vulnerable and open to new experiences, connections, and relationships on the other. You can think about this in terms of genre and medium (in both the graphic novel and film) as well as illustrative techniques, framing, storytelling, humorous/ironic juxtapositions, and actual examples from the texts where you see this balance.

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