Whose History? Whose Knowledge?

Joan Scott provides a framework from which to think, interpret, and understand how visual culture can produce and communicate messages for the consumption of communities. It is in that production and communication that narrative are either legitimized into historical “fact” or delegitimized as lore. In discussing the relationship between vision and history, Scott says, “Experience can both confirm what is already known (we see what we have learned to see) and upset what has been taken for granted (when different meanings are in conflict we readjust our vision to take account of the conflict or to resolve it - that is what is meant by ‘learning from experience,’ though not everyone learns the same lesson or learns it at the same time or in the same way)” (Scott 409). It is in the historicizing of experience that determines who holds knowledge and it is in that knowledge that also determines who holds power, agency, and authenticity.

Yet, in acknowledging that differentiation, Scott particularly critiques the ties between vision and knowledge or evidence, asserting that in those visibility politics that subjects are inauthentically constructed through racialization and genderization. In particular, it is through visual mediums that this subject construction takes place. Further, it is not only the medium’s content and its production that exclusively informs that ways in which those subjects are constructed. Rather, it is also in the circulation and consumption of those subjects to particular audiences that further ascertains how subjects are developed.

One example of visual culture that proactively engages the relationship between vision and knowledge or evidence, ultimately also working to re-story “legitimized” narratives, is the 2007 film Persepolis, directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, an animated feature length film that told Satrapi’s autobiographical story as a product of the dictatorship of Iran and her journey growing up in the face of harsh regimes and the displacement of culture, religion, and geography. Satrapi’s identity as a women, one that has an empowered mind and voice, works toward that re-storying, yet it is completely filtered through her personal struggle and experience. It is in those personal ties that give live and energy to the news articles and stories in newspapers, yet they also further complicate collective narratives, fully illustrating many of Scott’s discussion points about the making and re-making of history.

In that construction of history, the filmmakers of Persepolis fully utilize cinematic references and techniques to stimulate the audiences’ imagination, particularly in ways that are subtle and aesthetically enjoyable. In making the film, Satrapi and Parannaud engage is various cultures of transnational cinema, particularly German Expressionism and Italian Neorealism, allowing those filmic genres to inspire and inform many of the scenes’ foundation and construction. Yet, as a film adapted from a graphic novel, Persepolis also has the opportunity to explore another question: What makes a film... a film? With heavy ties to the world of graphic novels, Persepolis is much more than an animated movie. By incorporating animated versions of other examples of mediums, specifically live-action motion pictures like Godzilla and Terminator, Persepolis exists in a reality that is relatable to a particular audience. Indeed, the audience must have a level of familiarity with particular pop culture texts. Yet, if that familiarity is there, the filmmakers are able to have a subtle, unspoken dialogue with their audience. Another good examples is Marjane’s Eye of the Tiger sequence that directly, yet never explicitly, references the 1979 boxing film Rocky 2.

In making Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud employ various techniques to give live to Satrapi’s story. It is in that storytelling that they are create history, a narrative that has never been seen by so many people around the world. That is, in affect, a demonstration of how experience reflects history and history reflects experience.