Decoding Trauma: A Cultural Ecological Reading of the Graphic Memoir Persepolis

Abstract

Trauma is an amalgamation of repercussions happened and the effects of socio-cultural conflicts. Graphical novels always combine images and text to decipher the narrative by appealing to all senses. Persepolisis, a graphic memoir is also an autobiographical narrative written by Marjane Satrapi. This memoir covers the societal and cultural aspects through pictorial representation. It delineates Satrapi’s childhood and her adult years in Iran and Austria during the Islamic Revolution. Satrapi resists to accept the new changes happening in the society. Eventually, she forgets her real self who migrates abroad in search of hope but ends up in trauma. This research article sets out to analyse Satrapi’s existential crisis, identity trauma, self- discovery and how the ecology influenced her culture and life.