Persepolis vols. I and II by Marjane Satrapi

Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis recounts her childhood and early adulthood against the backdrop of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the subsequent Iran-Iraq war. This is a story with both local and global aspects. Through the 1979 Revolution, religious traditionalists attempted to redefine Iranian identity in fundamentalist Islamic terms against the “decadent” West. Much of Satrapi’s story relates how ordinary Iranians tried to deal with these changes in everyday life. How does Satrapi describe the Islamic revolutionary transformation of Iranian society after 1979, and how Iranians reacted to (and resisted) these changes? How does she describe the formation of her own identity against fundamentalism, both in Iran and as a “Third Worlder” living in Europe? What role did both fear and freedom play in this process? What, for Satrapi, does it mean to be free?

Write a 3-5 page paper (12 point font, double-spaced, regular margins) addressing these questions and issues. I expect the paper to have a clear thesis and argument that is supported by concrete examples from the novel and relates to the historical context we are learning about in lecture and in the textbook.