Ivanna Hidalgo - Historical Context

Ivanna Hidalgo
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Week 5 - Pages 62 - 109
Historical Context

Marjane Satrapi and the Islamic Revolution

 

"Banned Books Awareness:." Banned Books Awareness. Web. 15 Mar. 2015. <http://bannedbooks.world.edu/2013/03/23/banned-books-awareness-persepolis/>.

            First of all, these last chapters have been about how Marji lives in moment of disgrace since she experiences the feeling of her uncle getting arrested, her mother being verbally harassed, moving to Spain to avoid chaos, etc. As Marji tells about these events, she learns how to be more independent and most importantly, how to speak for herself.

 Billet, Alexander. Banning Persepolis? SocialistWoker.com, 23 Mar. 2013. Web. <http://socialistworker.org/2013/03/26/banning-persepolis>.

            Now, speaking more towards the writing process of this book, there are many historical events that do influence this. Actually, this book is written out of actual life historical events happening to mostly the Islamic culture. Before starting with the Islamic Revolution, the author is the most important person in this book for the reason that she is the primary character in Persepolis. Marjane Satrapi, Marji, is an Iranian born French author, actress, director and illustrator, which now is 45 years old (Biography of Marjane Satrapi). In fact, Marjane attended the Lycée Français as a very young kid in Tehran with her family. Leading to her writing the book Persepolis, which informs about her childhood and the Islamic Revolution starting in the year 1979 (Satrapi, 3). In an interview, Satrapi states how living 4 years of her life put into a book was like getting really high and then going low again (Marjane Satrapi: On Artistic Freedom, Fame & Finishing No Matter What). Therefore, she decided to re-tell 4 years of her childhood in a “simple” comic book. Additionally, the cultural issues related to this book made it hard to publish it worldwide. At first, Persepolis was published in French, but then came the English release in 2003, when Time Magazines and New York Times identified it as one of the best books of the year. Anyways, the inspiration of this book what challenged because it became undoubtedly controversial in the Middle East (Case Study: Persepolis). As a matter of fact, Middle Schools had this book taken away from their libraries immediately, recognizing it as a major conflict to children and teens. Last but not least, Persepolis turned into a banned book in some places in Europe. For example, this book has been banned in Marjane Satrapi's native country, Iran, showing how menacing this content can be (Banning Persepolis?). Some schools, such as Chicago Public Schools, state this book as inappropriate and will not add any importance to children's environment, ending up as a censorship (Banned Books Awareness: "Persepolis"). Ultimately, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi became and inspiration to some and an offense to others; but otherwise, this book speaks for the society that did not have the courage to explain all of the tragedy’s and wars during the Cultural Revolution.