Buradasınız

Anasayfa » Content

Satrapi’s Persepolis: A Post-Colonial Work or not?

Journal Name:

  • Çankaya University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Publication Year:

  • 2012

Key Words:

Keywords (Original Language):

Author Name
Abstract (2. Language): 
Azar Nasifi’nin Reading Lolita in Tehran adl› eserinin baflar›s› sayesinde son zamanlarda diaspora an› yaz›lar›n›n say›s› artmaya bafllam›fl ve sonucunda Neo-Oryantalizm, Oryantalizmin güçlü ayaklar›ndan biri haline gelmifltir. Diaspora edebiyat› yazarlar›, Hamid Dabashi’nin belirtti¤i gibi “yerli kaynaklard›r”: Kendi ülkeleri hakk›nda “bilgi” üretirken asl›nda Bat›’n›n gözünden Do¤u’yu inceleyerek kendi halk›na zarar veren kaynaklard›r. Ürettikleri, herhangi bir de¤erlendirmeye tabi tutulmad›¤›ndan diaspora an› yazarlar›, Do¤u’nun gerçek yüzünü a盤a ç›karan objektif, do¤ru ve tarafs›z yazarlar olarak kabul görürler. Bu görüfle paralel olarak, ‹ranl› baz› diaspora yazarlar› ‹ran halk›n› ilkel, gülünç, erotik, fliddet yanl›s› Oryantal stereotipler olarak betimlemektedir. Bu çal›flmam›zda, ‹ranl› Diaspora yazarlar›ndan Marjane Satrapi’nin Persepolis adl› eserini inceleyece¤iz. Satrapi, ‹ranl›lar›, tam da Oryantalist söylemin Do¤ulular› tarih boyunca aktard›¤› gibi betimlemeye çal›flan bir ‘yerli kaynakt›r’. Bu çal›flmada, Sardar, Said ve di¤erlerinin kuramlar›ndan hareketle Oryantalist söylemde yer alan varsay›mlar ortaya konmufl ve bu varsay›mlar ›fl›¤›nda eser incelemesi yürütülmüfltür.
Bookmark/Search this post with
Abstract (Original Language): 
During the recent past years, chiefly due to the triumph of Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran, diasporic memoirs have popped up, and consequently the phenomenon of neo-Orientalism has been converted into one of the most well-fortified pillars of Orientalism. The authors of such diaspora writers are, in Hamid Dabashi’s terminology, ‘native informers’ who try to produce “knowledge” about their own homeland, and actually ruin the face of their countrymen by scrutinizing Orientals through Western looking-glasses. Without any evaluations of what they proffer, the diaspora memoirists are regarded as truthful, prudent and impartial ones who unveil the real East. Following this lane, some of the Iranian Diaspora authors move heaven and earth mostly to portray Iranians, as Oriental stereotypes, primitive, ludicrous, erotic, violent and etc. This paper is going to fulfill a close reading of one of the Oriental works of Iranian Diaspora writer, Marjane Satrapi: Persepolis. Satrapi is our concerned ‘native informer’ who seeks to portray Iranians precisely as what the Orientalist discourse has been promulgating down the history lane. Here, first of all, very briefly, using Sardar and Said and others, the presuppositions existent in the Orientalist discourse are put forth, and then they are traced in the work to give substance to the Orientalist identity of it. Direct sentences from the book are brought force to prove beyond doubt how this work tries to fortify Orientalist discourse regarding Iran and Iranians.
FULL TEXT (PDF): 
PDF icon arastirmax-satrapis-persepolis-post-colonial-work-or-not.pdf
  • 2
273
294
  • English

REFERENCES

References: 

Abdel-Malek, Anouar. “Orientalism in Crisis.” Diogenses, no. 44 (Winter 1963): 104-12.
Abrams, M. H. and Geoffrey Galt Harpham. A Glosary of Literary Terms, 9th edition (Boston: Wadsworth
Cengage Learning, 2009).
Cromer, Lord. Modern Egypt, 2 (New York: MacMillan, 1908.)
SATRAPI’S PERSEPOLIS: A POST-COLONIAL WORK OR NOT? 293
94 Peter Novick, The Holocaust in American Life (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1999), p.197.
95 Ziauddin Sardar, Orientalism, pp.85-86.
Dabashi, Hamid. “Native Informers and the Making of the American Empire.” 2006. retrieved from:
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/797/special.htm, on 2nd January, 2012.
Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory: An Introduction. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1989.
Elgamri, Elzain. Islam in the British Broadsheets: The Impact of Orientalism on Representations of Islam
in the British Press. Lebanon: Ithaca Press, 2008.
Golafshani, Leila. Politics and Culture,retrieved from:http://www.politicsandculture.org/2009/10/02/leiligolafshani-‘
iranian-exilic-memoir’-a-review-of-shirin-ebadi-iran-awakening-azar-nafisi-reading-‘lolita’-
in-tehran-azadeh-moaveni-lipstick-jihad/, on 3rd January, 2012.
Marandi, Seyyed Mohammad and Hossein Pirnajmuddin. “Constructing an Axis of Evil: Iranian Memoirs
in the “Land of the Free”” The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, 26 (2009,) pp.23-47.
Marshall, P. G., and G. Williams. The Great Map of Mankind (London: Dent, 1982).
Naghibi, Nima. Rethinking Global Sisterhood: Western Feminism and Iran (London: University of
Minnesota Press, 2007).
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Human, All Too Human (London: University of Nebraska Press, 1984).
Novick, Peter. The Holocaust in American Life (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1999).
Said, Edward W. Orientalism, (New York: Random House, 1994).
Sardar, Ziauddin. Orientalism, (Buckingham: Open University Press, 1999).
Satrapi, Marjane. Embroideries [translated by Anjali Singh] (New York: Pantheon Books, 2005).
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis 1: The Story of a Childhood (London: Jonathan Cape, 2003).
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return (New York: Pantheon Books, 2004).
Whitlock, Gillian. Soft Weapons: Autobiography in Transit (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,
2007).

Thank you for copying data from http://www.arastirmax.com