Post-Colonial Critique of Persepolis

In this blog post I will provide a post-colonial critique of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. In this post-colonial critique I will discuss how this text comments on, represents or represses marginalized voices, explore how the text represents a colonized cultural group, how this text creates images of others, how this text demonstrates a colonial mindset, and how the conflicts in the text might be viewed as cultural conflicts.

Persepolis comments on and represents those marginalized people whose voices were repressed after the Islamic Revolution took place in Iran in 1979. Since Satrapi herself, her parents, much of the rest of her family and their friends were amongst these people, the novel gives great insight into this. In-fact in the introduction to the book Satrapi mentions how she wrote the book so that people from outside of Iran can see how plenty of people there are not fundamentalists, fanatics, or extremists and how all Iranians should not be judged the same or considered to be the same as the extremists that are in power. Satrapi also mentions how she wrote the book to show the people who fought against the regime’s struggles (those whose voices were marginalized). Throughout the book it is shown that those who spoke out against or who fought against the Iranian Shah and the ideologies that he was trying to force onto Iranian society were often silenced. The measures that the Shah’s regime used to silence them in the novel are shown to include beating, stabbing, or shooting protestors and demonstrators and putting people who spoke out against the regime into prison and beating and/or killing these prisoners. The novel also shows the fear that people, such as Satrapi’s family who protested against or fought against the regime often felt, as they could potentially be arrested or killed at any time due to how they acted and the beliefs that they held. So through Marjane’s families’ experiences, the novel represents the Iranians who were marginalized because they disagreed with those in power.

The novel represents a specific colonized cultural group, which is the Persian people and shows how throughout time various foreign invaders have attempted to occupy and influence the area that they live in and their culture or how they actually have done these things. In the introduction section of the novel Satrapi discusses how throughout time foreign invaders from Macedonia (Alexander the Great), neighbouring Arabic countries, Turkey and Mongolia tried to conquer Persia and the Persian people and force their culture onto them, but that Persian people and their culture were largely able to withstand the invaders influence and instead in many ways forced their invaders to assimilate into their culture. However, Satrapi does note that certain Arabic cultural elements came to be dominant in what was once known as Persia, namely their religion, Islam. In-fact on page 81 of Persepolis, Satrapi discusses how the Arabs who invaded Persia forced all the Persians to convert to Islam. This religion came to be the dominant one in the country because of this and remained so. Satrapi also discusses how western colonial powers, particularly Great Britain heavily influenced and controlled the Iranian economy in the 20^th century because of the discovery of oil within the countries’ borders. The novel discusses how Great Britain and their western allies invaded and occupied Iran when Iran would not commit to being their ally during World War Two, how they put an embargo on Iranian oil exports when the countries’ Prime Minister nationalized the oil industry and how they overthrew that same Prime Minister and installed a leader who was willing to serve their interests after this occurred. So, through the above, Persepolis represents the colonized Persian people and shows how Iran’s colonization is multi-layered and complex.

The text creates images of the “others” in two ways, one is through Marjane’s family and people like them and the other is through the people who are not like them. Marjane’s family and people like them are shown to be othered in the book because they are constantly fighting against the Iranian government and the people who support the government and the ideologies that they are trying to impose on society. They are shown to be the minority in this regard and hold significantly less influence and power, thereby making them the “other.” However, since the story is told from the perspective of Marjane who does not support the government and their ideologies, those who do support the government and their ideologies are also shown to be “others” in a way in the novel. Since their perspectives and beliefs are not the dominant narrative displayed and they do not have any representation through a major character, they are also othered. They are just shown to be mean, violent and subservient to the government in the images of the text that is all, while those who are like Marjane’s family are shown to be good and justifiably rebellious in the images of the text. So, the novel is weird in the way that both sides represented in the story are othered, not just one.

The text demonstrates a colonial mindset through its discussion of how in certain ways the Persian people have just accepted cultural aspects imparted on them by their various colonizers throughout time. This is particularly true when the novel discusses how Islam came to be dominant in the region formerly known as Persia once Arabic invaders forced it upon the Persian people. The Persians demonstrated a colonial mindset by just accepting this religion into their culture and allowing it to become dominant and influential within them without trying to fight it. The religion became so influential that Iran became a country whose whole society was and continues to be based around it. Persians also demonstrated a colonial mindset in Persepolis by allowing western powers such as Great Britain to become so influential in their country that they were able to largely control their economy and resources and determine who ruled their country. Again, the Persians were not able to fight this and just accepted this.

The conflicts in the text might be viewed as cultural conflicts because of how different the two sides that are in conflict are despite the fact that the people involved are from the same country and technically belong to the same cultural group. The side that Marjane’s family belongs to appear to support Iran being influenced less by religion and support freedom in a variety of aspects (clothing, beliefs, political association, and alcohol consumption). They also appear to support the ideas and ideals laid out in the teachings of Marx and other prominent communists. However, the fundamentalists that Marjane’s family are fighting against support the country being entirely based around religion (laws, beliefs, and clothing), having one supreme leader (the Shah) and hurting those who do not agree with them. So, in a way the people like Marjane’s family can be seen culturally as tradition Persians as they fight against the aspects of Iranian society that were brought about by foreign invaders, while the people who are not like Marjane’s family can be seen culturally as new age Iranians as they support and uphold the aspects of Iranian society brought about by foreign invaders.