Creative Responses to Muslim Literature

This comic strip is a reflection created in the style of Persepolis. One of the reasons I so enjoyed Persepolis was because of its comic book theme. It was a unique way of telling the story of a young girl as well as describing the history of Iran. Seeing the history of Iran especially during that time period unfold was interesting because it was through the eyes of the child. For this reason, I decided to make my reflection something that displayed my understanding of Iranian history “through my eyes”. The first square shows our seminar in class discussing the story Persepolis. Next, we study Iran and the history of its politics and religion, and different students raise their hands to contribute to the class discussion. The third segment shows a movie screening of Syriana. This was an important part of my understanding of Persepolis, because I read it at the same time as I was studying Orientalism in the context of Syriana in my Expos class. This provided me with a unique opportunity, as I was able to read the history of Iran in Persepolis but also see a fictional representation of the Middle East while I watched the film. The film presented the history of the Middle East in a decidedly Orientalist light. The following segment shows the next week’s Expos class after we have discussed Iran in relation to America. This discussion was especially important to my understanding of Persepolis, Iran, Orientalism as a whole because it allowed me to contrast the way Persepolis is told with the way Syriana is filmed. The subsequent square shows me watching the news in which American-Iranian foreign policy was prominently highlighted. The final square shows the next week of our seminar as we discussed the next weeks reading. This progression is an autobiography of the week during which we read Persepolis, and an attempt to show my developed and multi-dimensional understanding of Iranian history as it relates to my life as an American.