01 Tuesday April 19

Katherine Diemer’s Notes for April 19
Tuesday’s class started with a discussion of the bildungsroman, the German word for an “upbringing novel”. These types of novels are accounts of the youthful development of the hero or heroine. Bildungsroman stories, such as Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre or Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, often describe how the events that occur during a child or teenager’s life affects their personality and opinions as an adults. The class discussed how Persepolis could be considered a bildungsroman through the tale of Marjane, the protagonist, as she grows from a child into a young adult.

The class wrote and later discussed Marjane’s development as a teenager in Austria. The students noted that she attempts to become more “Westernized” in order to fit in. She is stereotyped as “exotic” or “demure” by her classmates because she is Iranian. At first, she seems justified in rebelling against their prejudices by reading activist literature by Bakunin and by befriending the radicals in her school. However, she begins to lose her identity by attempting to change everything about herself. She adopts a new style of dress, becomes part of the sexual revolution, and starts taking drugs. She becomes less convicted in her political beliefs after observing the games that take place at a light-hearted anarchist rally. Her identity shifts between being a Westerner, such as when she pretends to be French while flirting with a man, or being Iranian, such as when she proudly announces that she is Iranian to a group of malicious, gossiping girls.

The class also discussed whether Persepolis was an orientalist or hybrid text. Some students stated that the novel seemed orientalist in perspective in Austria, and a hybrid novel while taking place in Iran. Many students considered the novel to be a “reverse-Orientalist” novel. Many of the Western characters in Persepolis viewed their culture as superior to the Middle East; however, Marjane’s experiences demonstrate that both Europe and the Middle East cope with similar social problems. For example, she finds that the local nuns and Nazi skinheads are as equally suspicious and overzealous as the Guardians of the Revolution in her hometown. The class also compared Marjane’s experiences to the changes Holly and Leo undergo in the novel She. While Holly and Leo, both Westerners, lose their identities as rational, assertive men in the exotic, “Oriental” land of Kôr, Marjane loses her identity as a passionate, independent Iranian in Vienna, Austria. The class ended by discussing whether Marjane would come to terms with her identity as a grown woman.