Fatemeh Hosseini-shakib

History in Black and White: personal story, petty history and political manifesto in Marjaneh Satrapi’s Persepolis comic books and its animated version.
(preconstituted panel: Animating Iran: History, identity and the socially-motivated animation)

Abstract:This paper will be discussing Marjaneh Satrapi’s Persepolis (2008) and the original comic books from the viewpoint of an ‘insider’ Iranian who also has the experience of an ‘outsider’ having lived in the so called ‘Western world’ for some years. Exploring the implications and pitfalls of the ‘means’ of narrating history in the two different mediums, it calls attention to the vulnerability of ‘petty histories’ of individuals (Hutcheon, 1989) when transferred or rather transcended into the big-screen as a feature-length film with a totally different/diverse range of audiences/expectations.

Biographical statement: Having completed her PhD in animation studies in the UK (UCA, Farnham) recently, Fatemeh Hosseini-shakib is currently lecturing animation theory/aesthetics in the Faculty of Cinema and Theatre of Tehran Art University, Iran. Her current research interests include the question of representation and realism (and its hybrid nature) in the works of Aardman studio, traditional 3D/puppet animation, medium specificity thesis regarding the interpenetrating relationship of cinema and animation, as well as ‘Iranian Animation’ and its emerging forms and institutions, and finally animation as a tangible element of modernity in the non-western worlds.