Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi &

Feminist Theory
Jennifer Jennings, ENGL 675

 Persepolis is a story that honors cultural memory while simultaneously deconstructing

stories about women in crisis.
 Feminist criticism seeks to advocate for equality within the canon through revisionist
literary history by which they validate all cultures and creative people who have
contributed to society.
 Persepolis can be read from a post-structuralist and post-modernist feminist lens.
o From a post-modern perspective, Marji uses her gender and dress as a political
discourse and as an appropriation of the Western culture that, in her mind,
promotes liberation. Satrapi uses the images in the story to provide a discourse
on the hidden life of the people.
o From a post-structuralist perspective, Marji’s worldview influenced by her
parents’ liberalism and her uncle’s Marxism empower her political speech and
influence her role as a prophetess. Although it ultimately endangers her, Marji
uses this political speech to deconstruct Islamic fundamentalism’s propagation
of violence against women.
 Stories of crisis from women in the Middle East need to be shared and to assume their
place in the canon as valuable contributions to the literary canon.
 Links to videos referenced in the PowerPoint:
o “I Know It’s Today” from Shrek: The Musical
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8XsEEuQfWI
o Interview with Marjane Satrapi about the book/movie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9onZpQix_w
o Trailer for Persepolis the movie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PXHeKuBzPY
o Buying Illegal Music (from Persepolis, French only)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDkF5eWZg7c
o NPR article about The Breadwinner movie on Netflix
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/03/03/590215035/if-
afghanistan-ran-the-oscars-the-breadwinner-would-triumph

Works Cited
Bressler, Charles E. “Feminism.” Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice, 5th ed., Longman,
2011, pp. 143–64.
Butler, Judith. “Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity.” Critical Theory: A Reader for
Literary and Cultural Studies, edited by Robert Dale Parker, Oxford University Press, 2012, pp. 327–
38.
Chute, Hillary. “The Texture of Retracing in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis.” Women’s Studies Quarterly, vol. 36,
no. 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2008, pp. 92–110, doi:10.1353/wsq.0.0023.
Gilmore, Leigh, and Elizabeth Marshall. “Girls in Crisis: Rescue and Transnational Feminist Autobiographical
Resistance.” Feminist Studies, vol. 36, no. 3, Fall 2010, pp. 667–90,
https://www.jstor.org/stable/27919128.
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. L’Association, 2003.