I realize my discussing McCloud's issues of icons is a bit belated and misplaced, and most of these issues have probably already been touched upon, either in class or on the blog, but some of the ideas it provoked in me are still lingering, especially because, in my paper for the second scd, I did not make get to making a connection between Satrapi's and McCloud's texts. So, please excuse this tardy entry, which, I'm certain, will be bereft of anything new or consequential.
In my paper, I discussed how icons aid in demonstrating not only the potentially differing connotations and understandings of a form of human communication, but also in how separate the intentions of their usage can be. To showcase how this might work in ways not overtly explored in McCloud's text, I chose to focus upon one aspect of the written Japanese language:
In Japanese, a writing system called kanji is employed. These kanji are comprised of 214 radicals, which could be understood as building blocks to create a single character to represent a word. The kanji for sun is 日(hi), which is a radical in itself. This kanji's pronunciation changes when it is paired with another kanji: the kanji for book is 本(hon), which, when paired with the kanji for sun, creates 日本(nihon), meaning Japan. The kanji 早(haya), meaning fast or early, is the combination of 日 and the kanji for ten, 十(jyuu.) These examples showcase the multiple ways in which a single radicle (日) can be employed, can be transformed to take upon new meanings, all of which may have vague connections—and certainly connotations that sift through with the radical in its multiple, varying reincarnations it appears in. More, the pronunciations of these kanji differ in Mandarin and Cantonese (being the origin.)
With those icons in mind, I wonder how might the veil, in Persepolis, be interpreted as an icon? Certainly the veil, like words and icons themselves, has numerous connotations and understandings that shift between individuals. In Persepolis, the veil is employed mostly to symbolize oppression; however, in Seyed Mohammad Marandi's critical article, Reading Azar Nafisi in Tehran, discusses how Satrapi has a "Westernized" outlook in her, asserting that she presents gross misrepresentations of Iranian society and Islam. I do not feign any insight with these matters, so I would not entertain the idea of knowing how accurate Satrapi's depictions are, but it has made me curious as to how and in what ways depictions that are implicitly used as icons can be employed to further any sort of underlying agenda.
1 comment:
I find your use of Japanese letters to give depth to the discussion of the symbolic meaning very interesting. It reminds me of Ezra Pound's Cantos where he uses Chinese letters mixed with various other languages to tell stories or give meaning to concepts that cannot be fleshed out by an ordinary use of language. I think he was frustrated by the insufficiency of language (especially English) and how a word rarely ever had any true relationship to the thing the word was signifying.
But to get to your question of the veil, I see it as a paradoxically equalizing and oppressive symbol. If you look through Persepolis, there are many frames where it is difficult to distinguish between Marji, her friends, and even her mother. The veil, in her artistic rendering of it, is portrayed as an equalizing object that makes all the women look the same. This may seem like an oppressive object, but to take school uniforms as an example, I think it shifts the focus from a woman's body and on to her character. Personally, I went to a Catholic school and we all had to wear uniforms, which I absolutely hated at first. I learned to love the uniform though, because it required me to stand out on the merit of my personality rather than my aesthetic choices. I think Satrapi's usage of the veil has somewhat of the same effect. This countered by the personal perspective she takes on the veil and the way she describes her mother's and her relationship with it. This aesthetic sameness is oppressive to Satrapi because it was imposed on her and she sees it as a limitation of free expression. There are many Muslim women though, who freely wear the veil and see it as a way to escape objectification and demonstrate modesty.
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