Zakiya Campbell
For my context research presentation I will be talking about Marjane Satrapi’s life and how she grew up and got to where she is now. Starting off Marjane was born in Rasht, Iran in 1969 near the Caspian Sea and grew up in Tehran. Just like in Persepolis 1 Marji is an only child that is growing up during the Islamic Revolution. Her father was an engineer and her mother was a clothing designer. In Tehran she attended Lycée Français which is a French international school including the grades kindergarten to high school.
At age 14 Satrapi left Iran and attended school in Vienna. “Her parents, who had taught her to think freely and not believe the propaganda the government required the teachers to teach, became concerned when Satrapi began to openly question the teachers. They wanted their rebellious daughter to live in a freer society, so they sent her to Austria to study.”(notablebiographies.com) Something you may not know about Marjane Satrapi is that when she was in Vienna she actually hated it because of being an outsider and things started to go downhill from there and she ended up using drugs and became homeless. So she returned to Tehran at 19 years old and studied art, eventually got married, (it didn’t last very long) and then moved back to Europe in 1993. She then obtained a degree in art and by 1999 she permanently moved to Paris, France.
In conclusion “By recounting her life story of growing up in Iran and emigrating to Europe, and by telling it in graphic-novel form, Marjane Satrapi has become an unusual ambassador for her native country. She has also become a spokeswoman for greater freedom there and a voice against war and for cross-cultural understanding. Her use of graphic novels to tell autobiographical stories with political facets to them makes her messages especially accessible and affecting while bringing serious attention to the graphic-novel form.” (notablebiographies.com)
“Guest Columnist Biography: Marjane Satrapi.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 27 Oct. 2005, archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/ref/opinion/satrapi-bio.html.
Luebering, J.E. “Marjane Satrapi.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1 Jan. 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/Marjane-Satrapi.
“Marjane Satrapi Biography.” Encyclopedia of World Biography, www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2006-Ra-Z/Satrapi-Marjane.html.
Hi Zakiya! Your research really fascinated me. By summing up Marjane Satrapi’s life, I was able to see how her childhood affected her later on. Satrapi had dealt with so much pain that at first she could not handle it trying to use drugs as escapism; however, through art and writing she was clearly able to display her pain and relieve some of the stress. I wonder how Marjane Satrapi is coping with her past now that she was able to tell her story. Does it still cause as much pain as before? Or does she feel better knowing that her story has allowed many people to learn and grow?
Hi Zakiya,
Throughout the exploration of Satrapi’s life, I think it is important to know her background and where she comes from. I think it is particularly interesting that when she went to Vienna, she did not enjoy it even leaving the harsh and violent life in Iran. But, if I would try to put myself in her shoes, leaving my home country, and everything I have ever known at the age of 14, a whole new country would be intimidating and unenjoyable. I think Satrapi serves as a great role model for young women to speak up for their freedoms and to stand strong as the powerful individual each one of us are.
Hi Zakiya! Really great job this week on your Context Presentation. I found it extremely helpful and important that you gave insight into Marjane Satrapi’s life. I also love the ending in which you said, “She has also become a spokeswoman for greater freedom there and a voice against war and for cross-cultural understanding. Her use of graphic novels to tell autobiographical stories with political facets to them makes her messages especially accessible and affecting while bringing serious attention to the graphic-novel form.”” This was important to me to reiterate because it is SO true and needs to be known from all what we have learned about Marjane Satrapi’s life as a whole!!
Hey Zakiya,
Thank you for this well-written presentation! A lot of this information was really interesting after reading the novel, as details aren’t as explicitly stated in the book. I didn’t know she received an art degree and ended up living in France, but this makes sense with the French production of the movie!
Hi Zakiya,
I really appreciate your research for this week. Going more in depth into the life of Marjane Satrapi’s helped me to better understand her life. I had no idea she hated Vienna that much. It also helps that you included information about her later life that wasn’t in the book. Marjane Satrapi is truly an amazing woman who has earned my sympathy and utmost respect.
Zakiya,
I found it interesting and a little disheartening reading about how her parents sent her to Vienna so that she could live freely and have generally a better life than she would have had in Iran, but it pretty much backfired. Marjane encounters entirely new problems in Vienna and it seems that she just can’t catch a break no matter where she goes.