Using Naficy's description of exile discourse and liminality, how does Marjane negotiate/consolidate her Iranian roots with the new countries and cultures she is exposed to? Cite specific passages from the article.
Marjane seems to never truly belong to any one place, she cannot stay in her home country, she becomes an outcast in other countries, and is only truly at peace while with her family. Naficy describes a feeling of homelessness that an exile feels in a passage from Esma'il Kho'i where he writes "Un-wanting to be in the host society and un-able to go back home" (p11). While in Austria, Marjane is transported from one home to another, never feeling accepted, and eventually ends up living on the streets. She finds friends in the exiled kids at school and when she falls in love for a guy he breaks her heart and she is forced to flee that situation as well. Naficy continues this point on page 16 and 17 as he describes how exiles dream to go back to their homeland and if they return, only return for a short period of time. After Marjane is forced to go back to Iran because of her sickness, she does not stay for long as she soon has to leave to go to france for a better life. Throughout her life she will always be longing for something more; whether it is to be at home again, find a better country to live, or find a new family/friends to love.
In times of trouble marjane seems to find influence from all that is around her. Desperately trying to find herself and fit in marjane tries may different ways to assimilate with her surroundings. Marjane felt times of exile and loneliness but it was always her family that she felt most comfortable with. Is there really such a place as a place of security or is that just an emotion of comfort-ability?
From a very young age Marjane is fully aware of the terrible social and political situation that her home country of Iran is currently in. Her family makes her very aware of this and really influences her to not accept the immediate world around her, as it currently stands. When in Iran, Marjane is unable to suppress her rebellious tendencies so her parents send her to Austria; making her an exile. At this point she has escaped the suffocating conditions in Iran but she is in a foreign land, unfamiliar and unwelcoming to her. Naficy's discourse on this subject of exile explains that exiles, when exiled begin to experience a sense of homelessness (p.11); Marjane definitely seems to experience this feeling of homelessness. Unable to reside in her homeland, and unable to settle and assimilate into this new land forces her to feel as if she is in some kind of geographical grey area. Unable to return home to her family and unable to feel at home in this new place, supposedly where she would be secure, truly plays with Marjanes emotions and sense of belonging in the world.
Marjane experiences the paradox of exile when she moves to France at the age of fourteen. She is not forcibly exiled, but her parents think it would be best for her to go to school in France rather than stay in Iran. After being in France for a while, she realizes that she does not belong here, and that she would rather be back home in Iran with her family. She is exiled internally because she does not get along with everyone and even starts to deny her own roots in Iran. It is a paradox because she can't deal with the corruption in Iran so she moves to France, but once there, she can't deal with the culture change and decides to move back.
I feel like this article accurately describes the different situations and emotions that Marjane was facing. One of the most important being where Naficy mentions avageri on page 11, which can be translated as forced homelessness or vagrancy. Throughout the film Marjaen is often never really settled, when shes home she doesn't fit in, and is interested in western culture, music, fashion, and trends. This gets her in trouble with different people who don't like how she is changing. When she goes abroad, she doesn't fit in at first, so she changes, changing herself to fit into her home and often forsaking her roots, but that doesn't work out either, and some of the people she meets are actually more interested in her roots then she is. When she returns home she is greeted with mixed reactions, some of her family asks her about the nightclubs and partying, which is something that wouldn't happen in Iran, and she said she didn't really partake in it, and they are taken aback. On the other hand, she has changed, and when she gets a man locked up her grandmother is furious, and she runs into many other people who aren't fond of her new ways, and who consider her a prostitute. All in all this simply shows how no matter where she is, if she has changed or if she hasn't, she cannot fit in with anybody, and is truly "homeless".
Marjane’s experiences a development of character when overseas. This is a result of her social experiences Iran and in response to her different situation in Vienna.
This reflects Naficy's overview on page nine: "Located in this slipzone of doubt, the liminars are between the structural force fields and host social systems, and as a result they are in a position not only to question, even subvert, much of their previous authenticities, authorities, identities, and cultural practices but also to forge new ones in their place"
We see that Marjane is a rebellious person before she leaves for Vienna. But when she yells at the nuns when confronted with double-standards and discrimination, we see that she is responding to the abuse of authority that her family incurred whilst she lived in Iran and using her new found freedom in Vienna.
Marjane grows into a new identity in Vienna but is left sad because she does not feel at home. Her decision to go back to Iran is not necessarily motivated by a desire to return to her original cultural identity, but it could be argued that she is simply unhappy with the new identity that she has craft and imply wants to see her family again.
Culture is not a large theme in Persepolis, but the idea that a culture can interfere with a person’s lifestyle is ultimately a key reason as to why Marjane decides to leave Iran again and also why her family advocates her decision.
Van Gennep's paradigm of the rite of passage of a society works quite well as a vehicle for Marjane's cultural identity in foreign lands. While in Iran, she really has no personal belief in what all is happening, but she goes with whatever cause she is told is right. Only by leaving her country and later, as Van Grennep suggests,does she truly gain a perspective on who she is and what it means to be Iranian. I found the notion of an exile being expected to have public showings of their grief to be quite interesting. Marjane takes this to the highest level while in Europe by literally casting herself off from civilized life and becoming a drifter waiting to die on the streets. When Marjane first leaves Iran, her exile is basically forced upon her. Because her Iranian identity was not fully developed, part of her was missing that burning desire for her homeland that is mentioned in the article. Instead she was moreso a young girl just trying to grow up and find friend, love, and fun. It's this lack of burning desire that can be used to explain why she would let herself lie about her cultural identity just to be accepted. It's after she returns home and truly understands who she is and is forced into exile again that Marjane's heart becomes lit up with passion for Iran. She will always want to return to her homeland and life that she loves, but she knows that she must accept a new land to live in and adapt to.
Marjane was exiled from her home country because of the dangers that they were being faced with in Iran. Therefore, she was sent to France. In france, she had a hard time fitting in and was persued as a outcast. She was kicked out of multiple households, until she finally decided to go back to Iran and she was welcomed back. When she arrived, everyone was asking her how was the nightclubs a, but she said she never attended nightclubs, everyone was shocked. Eventually, she started facing depression and started to not belong her in home country as well, so she was exiled permanently.
Throughout the film, Marjane is stuck between conflicting cultures, this led to her having difficulties to fit into both western and Iranian societies. As a child, she was strongly influenced by western culture, listening to pop music and dressing in non-traditional clothing. This type of behavior was not accepted by others in her community and her parents feared that she would eventually get into trouble with the law. Because of Marjane's inability to fit in with Iranian culture she was forced to move to Vienna.In Vienna she had the same issue of not fitting in, even though she was very familiar with western culture, many people judged her and isolated her due to her Iranian background. The shows how Marjane was in exile no matter where she went. She was trapped in between two very different cultures with no place to truly fit in.
Since Marjane have been exile from Iran, and settled in a new country at a very young age. She tries to fit in by neglecting her own Iranian root. She lies to a man at a party that she is from France. And, she convinces herself that she'd found her place, but she was not like them in Vienna, since she had gone through wars and political conflicts in Iran, unlike her friends. These feelings from a young girl who have been somewhat forcely exiled from her family and home country are described in Naficy's article. Naficy uses a term, averagi, "forced homelessness and vagrancy", on page 11. Marjane was in the state of averagi, when she was in Vienna. And since she was at her young age, neglecting her Iranian root was the only way to avoid the truth that she had been exiled from her country (although it was by her parents). According to Naficy's article, Marjane had been remained "HOMELESS", and "unsettled". In the article, Naficy uses a passage from an exile poet, Esma'll Kho'l. And I think this sums up Marjane's state when she struggled with her national identity in Vienna. Marjan must have suffered between these two ideas, "un-wanting to be in the host society and un-able to go back home."
due to social and political problem in Iran marjane had to leave Iran and went to France. Although she was very familiar with western culture but still unable to fit in. so she was transported from one place to another and then ended up on streets. As Naficy describes her situation, "Un-wanting to be in the host society and un-able to go back home" (p11).
it seems to me that Naficy's idea of exile fits Satrapi's need of wanting her culture and family back. We see, thoughout the film, Satrapi's trouble in other countries; never to fully be capable of functioning because she knows of the horrors back home as well as the abandonment of her family in such a situation. She tries to fit into her surroundings but in the end it back fires on her. As many of my counterparts have already stated, Naficy's describes her situations in "un's". By this I mean her unwanting to submit to her host societies ideals and her inability to go home. The horror of being in the middle will never fully dawn on me but it is something, i could only imagine, that will stagger the wills of even the mightiest of shells.
Marjane seems to never truly belong to any one place, she cannot stay in her home country, she becomes an outcast in other countries, and is only truly at peace while with her family. Naficy describes a feeling of homelessness that an exile feels in a passage from Esma'il Kho'i where he writes "Un-wanting to be in the host society and un-able to go back home" (p11). While in Austria, Marjane is transported from one home to another, never feeling accepted, and eventually ends up living on the streets. She finds friends in the exiled kids at school and when she falls in love for a guy he breaks her heart and she is forced to flee that situation as well. Naficy continues this point on page 16 and 17 as he describes how exiles dream to go back to their homeland and if they return, only return for a short period of time. After Marjane is forced to go back to Iran because of her sickness, she does not stay for long as she soon has to leave to go to france for a better life. Throughout her life she will always be longing for something more; whether it is to be at home again, find a better country to live, or find a new family/friends to love.
ReplyDeleteIn times of trouble marjane seems to find influence from all that is around her. Desperately trying to find herself and fit in marjane tries may different ways to assimilate with her surroundings. Marjane felt times of exile and loneliness but it was always her family that she felt most comfortable with. Is there really such a place as a place of security or is that just an emotion of comfort-ability?
ReplyDeleteFrom a very young age Marjane is fully aware of the terrible social and political situation that her home country of Iran is currently in. Her family makes her very aware of this and really influences her to not accept the immediate world around her, as it currently stands. When in Iran, Marjane is unable to suppress her rebellious tendencies so her parents send her to Austria; making her an exile. At this point she has escaped the suffocating conditions in Iran but she is in a foreign land, unfamiliar and unwelcoming to her. Naficy's discourse on this subject of exile explains that exiles, when exiled begin to experience a sense of homelessness (p.11); Marjane definitely seems to experience this feeling of homelessness. Unable to reside in her homeland, and unable to settle and assimilate into this new land forces her to feel as if she is in some kind of geographical grey area. Unable to return home to her family and unable to feel at home in this new place, supposedly where she would be secure, truly plays with Marjanes emotions and sense of belonging in the world.
ReplyDeleteMarjane experiences the paradox of exile when she moves to France at the age of fourteen. She is not forcibly exiled, but her parents think it would be best for her to go to school in France rather than stay in Iran. After being in France for a while, she realizes that she does not belong here, and that she would rather be back home in Iran with her family. She is exiled internally because she does not get along with everyone and even starts to deny her own roots in Iran. It is a paradox because she can't deal with the corruption in Iran so she moves to France, but once there, she can't deal with the culture change and decides to move back.
ReplyDeleteI feel like this article accurately describes the different situations and emotions that Marjane was facing. One of the most important being where Naficy mentions avageri on page 11, which can be translated as forced homelessness or vagrancy. Throughout the film Marjaen is often never really settled, when shes home she doesn't fit in, and is interested in western culture, music, fashion, and trends. This gets her in trouble with different people who don't like how she is changing. When she goes abroad, she doesn't fit in at first, so she changes, changing herself to fit into her home and often forsaking her roots, but that doesn't work out either, and some of the people she meets are actually more interested in her roots then she is. When she returns home she is greeted with mixed reactions, some of her family asks her about the nightclubs and partying, which is something that wouldn't happen in Iran, and she said she didn't really partake in it, and they are taken aback. On the other hand, she has changed, and when she gets a man locked up her grandmother is furious, and she runs into many other people who aren't fond of her new ways, and who consider her a prostitute. All in all this simply shows how no matter where she is, if she has changed or if she hasn't, she cannot fit in with anybody, and is truly "homeless".
ReplyDeleteMarjane’s experiences a development of character when overseas. This is a result of her social experiences Iran and in response to her different situation in Vienna.
ReplyDeleteThis reflects Naficy's overview on page nine:
"Located in this slipzone of doubt, the liminars are between the structural force fields and host social systems, and as a result they are in a position not only to question, even subvert, much of their previous authenticities, authorities, identities, and cultural practices but also to forge new ones in their place"
We see that Marjane is a rebellious person before she leaves for Vienna. But when she yells at the nuns when confronted with double-standards and discrimination, we see that she is responding to the abuse of authority that her family incurred whilst she lived in Iran and using her new found freedom in Vienna.
Marjane grows into a new identity in Vienna but is left sad because she does not feel at home. Her decision to go back to Iran is not necessarily motivated by a desire to return to her original cultural identity, but it could be argued that she is simply unhappy with the new identity that she has craft and imply wants to see her family again.
Culture is not a large theme in Persepolis, but the idea that a culture can interfere with a person’s lifestyle is ultimately a key reason as to why Marjane decides to leave Iran again and also why her family advocates her decision.
Van Gennep's paradigm of the rite of passage of a society works quite well as a vehicle for Marjane's cultural identity in foreign lands. While in Iran, she really has no personal belief in what all is happening, but she goes with whatever cause she is told is right. Only by leaving her country and later, as Van Grennep suggests,does she truly gain a perspective on who she is and what it means to be Iranian. I found the notion of an exile being expected to have public showings of their grief to be quite interesting. Marjane takes this to the highest level while in Europe by literally casting herself off from civilized life and becoming a drifter waiting to die on the streets. When Marjane first leaves Iran, her exile is basically forced upon her. Because her Iranian identity was not fully developed, part of her was missing that burning desire for her homeland that is mentioned in the article. Instead she was moreso a young girl just trying to grow up and find friend, love, and fun. It's this lack of burning desire that can be used to explain why she would let herself lie about her cultural identity just to be accepted. It's after she returns home and truly understands who she is and is forced into exile again that Marjane's heart becomes lit up with passion for Iran. She will always want to return to her homeland and life that she loves, but she knows that she must accept a new land to live in and adapt to.
ReplyDeleteMarjane was exiled from her home country because of the dangers that they were being faced with in Iran. Therefore, she was sent to France. In france, she had a hard time fitting in and was persued as a outcast. She was kicked out of multiple households, until she finally decided to go back to Iran and she was welcomed back. When she arrived, everyone was asking her how was the nightclubs a, but she said she never attended nightclubs, everyone was shocked. Eventually, she started facing depression and started to not belong her in home country as well, so she was exiled permanently.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the film, Marjane is stuck between conflicting cultures, this led to her having difficulties to fit into both western and Iranian societies. As a child, she was strongly influenced by western culture, listening to pop music and dressing in non-traditional clothing. This type of behavior was not accepted by others in her community and her parents feared that she would eventually get into trouble with the law. Because of Marjane's inability to fit in with Iranian culture she was forced to move to Vienna.In Vienna she had the same issue of not fitting in, even though she was very familiar with western culture, many people judged her and isolated her due to her Iranian background. The shows how Marjane was in exile no matter where she went. She was trapped in between two very different cultures with no place to truly fit in.
ReplyDeleteSince Marjane have been exile from Iran, and settled in a new country at a very young age. She tries to fit in by neglecting her own Iranian root. She lies to a man at a party that she is from France. And, she convinces herself that she'd found her place, but she was not like them in Vienna, since she had gone through wars and political conflicts in Iran, unlike her friends. These feelings from a young girl who have been somewhat forcely exiled from her family and home country are described in Naficy's article. Naficy uses a term, averagi, "forced homelessness and vagrancy", on page 11. Marjane was in the state of averagi, when she was in Vienna. And since she was at her young age, neglecting her Iranian root was the only way to avoid the truth that she had been exiled from her country (although it was by her parents). According to Naficy's article, Marjane had been remained "HOMELESS", and "unsettled". In the article, Naficy uses a passage from an exile poet, Esma'll Kho'l. And I think this sums up Marjane's state when she struggled with her national identity in Vienna. Marjan must have suffered between these two ideas, "un-wanting to be in the host society and un-able to go back home."
ReplyDeletedue to social and political problem in Iran marjane had to leave Iran and went to France. Although she was very familiar with western culture but still unable to fit in. so she was transported from one place to another and then ended up on streets. As Naficy describes her situation, "Un-wanting to be in the host society and un-able to go back home" (p11).
ReplyDeleteit seems to me that Naficy's idea of exile fits Satrapi's need of wanting her culture and family back. We see, thoughout the film, Satrapi's trouble in other countries; never to fully be capable of functioning because she knows of the horrors back home as well as the abandonment of her family in such a situation. She tries to fit into her surroundings but in the end it back fires on her. As many of my counterparts have already stated, Naficy's describes her situations in "un's". By this I mean her unwanting to submit to her host societies ideals and her inability to go home. The horror of being in the middle will never fully dawn on me but it is something, i could only imagine, that will stagger the wills of even the mightiest of shells.
ReplyDelete