In Joan Scott's essay, the "Evidence of Experience," Scott critiques the relationship between vision and knowledge/experience. Scott discusses how her discipline of history is engaged with that of experience. Scott states that the category of personal experience is regarded as the highest form of concrete evidence in history. "The challenge to normative history has been described, in terms of conventional historical understandings of evidence, as an enlargement of the picture, a correction to oversights resulting from inaccurate or incomplete vision, and it has rested its claim to legitimacy on the authority of experience..." (Scott, 399). Societies glorified perceptions of accounts of history through personal experience are expected to give light to the overarching image of history. However, Scott argues that individuals' personal experiences cannot fill in the gaps toward an accurate vision of history. Personal experiences of history are leaked into contemporary society few and far between with dependence on a variety of factors such as race, class and gender and one cannot speak for all. Scott is critical of the rescue mission approach, in which the job of politics is to bring visible that which has been concealed from history (Hannabach, 5/26). Becuase history is heavily mediated and controlled Scott historicizes experience rather than offering experience as truth (Hannabach, 5/26).
In Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's film Persepolis (2007) Satrapi presents her personal experience of her upbringing in Iran dealing with a discourse between family and politics. Persepolis presents a constructed representation of the war between Iraq and Iran, western colonialism in Iran, and gender relations (Hannabach, 5/26). Scott's critique of visibility politics and the "rescue missions" is paralleled with Persepolis in the multiple forms of translation provided in the film, such as language, social class, and politics (Hannabach, 5/26). While Satrapi gives a personal account that is unique and cannot be a definitive answer to those "hidden from history" becuase of these forms of translation, Satrapi does give a deliberate nod toward Persepolis being her narrative is not representative of that which Scott is critical of. Satrapi and Paronnaud provide the audience with countless reminders that the film represents Satrapi's memory, imagination, and interpretation of history in relation to her story. The artistic direction engages with various visual mediums such as graphic novels. The film Persepolis is based on two comic books also by Satrapi and Paronnaud and the images are very similar in the film to that of a graphic novel in terms of shape and color in animation. The animation aspect oft he film is impressive in that it resembles live action film through displaying images representative of camerca movement. In terms of photography, there is an image from the graphic novel that represents elements of realism that surpasses aspects of animation. In the link attached, Satrapi describes an image that represents a photo in which she is on the far left so the audience cannot see her. This depiction assumes elements of evidence through experience in that the audience assumes this is representative of an actual photograph. Persepolis has a number of deliberate representations of live theater such as when her father tells her the story of the Shaw and his son, an image of a theater and a curtain being pulled is shown representative of Satrapi's imaganation in terms of the story her father describes. Satrapi and Paronnaud critique the notion of television and its relationship with people in the film. Television presents a hypnotic manipulative manner of publicity that pulls characters away from actions in their lives. For example, in one scene Satrapi's husband has his eyes glued to the American action film, The Terminator, in efforts of ignoring and avioding needed confrontation with Satrapi. http://www.rand.org/international_programs/cmepp/imey/images/persepolis-page.gif
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Your commentary on the artistic elements of Satrapi and Paronnaud's work is particularly interesting, as it reminds us of the complexity that is inextricably linked to the politics of experiencing. However, I would argue that this makes film "Persepolis" a compelling supporter of some elements of Scott's argument. The political climate of the film remembered through the hazy recollections of childhood memories alludes to the complexity of feelings, social conditions, etc., that create an environment that socially constructs one's experience. The various means of conveying this is reflected in Marjane's own fragmented identities, the mise en scene of the film, and the jagged, often dreamlike memories.
ReplyDelete“Satrapi and Paronnaud provide the audience with countless reminders that the film represents Satrapi's memory, imagination, and interpretation of history in relation to her story.”
ReplyDeleteI agree that Persepolis is a presentation of one girl’s experience, and that the movie is dedicated to effectively conveying the events of Satrapi’s life during the Revolution and subsequent dictatorship. But, when you put stories into films, I think they become larger than representations of singular experiences; whether intentionally or not, they come to symbolize larger themes or messages in society. I cannot imagine that Satrapi did not recognize this prior to creating her film. She even stated in the “making of” clips that she was not interested in making an “ethnic” film, but rather a film that spoke generally about life in dictatorships. It seems that she perhaps desired her movie to serve two (seemingly contradictory) purposes: explore the personal story of her experience of life in Iran and make overtures about the universality of dictatorships. I sure wish we could talk to you her about her movie!