Hybridity in Design

Persepolis: Hybridity in Design

            Citing Robert Young, Ania Loomba points out that “a hybrid is technically a cross between two different species [...] However, in postcolonial theory, hybridity is meant to evoke all those ways in which [the vocabulary of the extreme right] was challenged and undermined” (171). In The Complete Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi presents another level of hybridity for us to consider in her use of the graphic narrative as her chosen medium for her autobiography. Professors Hillary Chute and Marriane DeKoven, in their “Introduction: Graphic Narrative” explain that “Graphic narrative, through its most basic composition in frames and gutters—in which it is able to gesture at the pacing and rhythm of reading and looking through the various structures of each individual page—calls a reader’s attention visually and spatially to the act, process, and duration of interpretation” (767).

Certainly, Satrapi could have utilized traditional literary means to tell her story, yet opted to utilize the hybrid form as a method of asking us to not only read, but to look at moments, both real and imagined, from her life. The decision seems clear when considering Chute and DeKoven’s comment on the hybridity inherent to graphic narrative: “We read this hybridity as a challenge to the structure of binary classification that opposes a set of terms, privileging one” (769). It is important, then that we as readers and academics, abide by these terms and avoid privileging either the text or image in any given cell as we consider any interpretations of the work.

In the introduction to Persepolis, Satrapi does opt to privilege text, orienting the reader in a more traditional literary form that lends itself to framing the narrative as authentic and to be believed, as she discusses the history of Iran from the “second millennium B. C.,” to the modernization brought on by Reza Shah, and lastly the Islamic revolution in 1979, which serves as the backdrop for the beginning act of the graphic narrative (i-ii). Satrapi sets out her thesis in the introduction, informing the reading that “Since then, this old and great civilization has been discussed mostly in connection with fundamentalism, fanaticism, and terrorism. As an Iranian who has lived more than half of my life in Iran, I know that this image is far from the truth” (ii).

She returns to the idea of truth in the section “The Heroes” where we find young Marji scolded for telling Siamak’s daughter, Laly, “Don’t you know that when they keep saying someone is on a trip it really means he is dead?” (48/4). Satrapi punctuates Laly’s disbelief and her mother’s disapproval with “Nobody will accept the truth” (48/8). The truth, here, is not as simple as her youthful decryption of Siamak’s trip, but rather Siamak and Mohsen’s discussion regarding the treatment of another fellow prisoner Ahmadi. Whereas most of this chapter is depicted with black walls as background, the image of torture is highlighted with a white backdrop, which causes the reader’s eyes to be drawn to the contrast. Instead of individual cells, separated by gutters, Satrapi display’s Ahmadi’s torture as one continuous image, with Siamak, Mohsen, Marji, and her father occupying the upper left corner, connecting them directly to the actions described (51/4). Siamak narrates the image, explaining: “Ahmadi... Ahmadi was assassinated. As a member of the guerillas, he suffered hell,” a statement punctuated by  an image of a whipped Ahmadi on his hands and knees, in nothing but a pair of briefs, being urinated on as a guard asks “How do you like this?” Without visual interruption, we see Ahmadi tied down while another guard whips him demanding: “Confess! Where are the others!” and another image of Ahmadi crying out in anguish as “they burned him with an iron.” Separated by a page break, we are shown an image of the assassinated Ahmadi cut into sections, like the graphic narratives story is often cut into sections, with the simple narration “In the end he was cut to pieces.” (52/1).

It is this violent truth, described to a child and her parents that “nobody would accept.” And it is this same truth that highlights that the acts of terrorism experienced in Satrapi’s life were often visited not on the foreign Westerner, as is often depicted in the media. No, these acts of terrorism and brutality were visited on these men and women by their own government. By utilizing the hybridity of the text, though, Satrapi asks us not only to consider the truth of her text, but also the messages conveyed in the image as we gaze at the torture seen. By stating that “nobody would accept the truth,” she is asking us to not only accept the truth, but be moved by it and in doing so, we might reconsider our notions regarding Iran and its position in the Middle East and the world.

Works Cited

Chute, Hillary L., and Marianne Dekoven. "Introduction: Graphic Narrative." MFS Modern Fiction Studies 52.4 (2006): 767-82. Web.

Loomba, Ania. Colonialism-Postcolonialism. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2015. Print.

Satrapi, Marjane, and Marjane Satrapi. The Complete Persepolis. New York: Pantheon, 2007. Print.