chrisncal2 Posted December 23, 2014 Report Share Posted December 23, 2014 Hi guys, I was wondering what you think of choosing a graphic novel, namely Persepolis, for my written assignment? I really enjoyed the book, however, I'm confused as to how to analyze Persepolis with regards to literary devices, etc, when most of the meaning is created through the pictures. If I solely discuss the pictures, will I lose marks in any of the criteria? Thanks in advance. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vioh Posted December 23, 2014 Report Share Posted December 23, 2014 Hi guys, I was wondering what you think of choosing a graphic novel, namely Persepolis, for my written assignment? I really enjoyed the book, however, I'm confused as to how to analyze Persepolis with regards to literary devices, etc, when most of the meaning is created through the pictures. If I solely discuss the pictures, will I lose marks in any of the criteria? Thanks in advance. From my experience, it's much easier to do English IA on a graphic novel compared to a normal novel. In fact, half of my class did their IAs on Persepolis; so don't worry too much An important thing to realize is that you wont lose marks for discussing the pictures in the novel, because this is a graphic novel for goodness sake. Don't make a mistake of thinking that pictures aren't good for literature analysis, because they are in fact pretty important. Regarding the literary devices, I don't think "most of the meaning is created through pictures". Pictures are surely a very important part of this novel as they create the mood/atmosphere for the story, while helping us to understand the inner-thoughts & feelings of Marji. However, Satrapi also used a lot of other literary techniques to reveal the themes of the novel. One of them is symbolism. For example, Satrapi used western music (e.g. Michael Jackson), western clothes (e.g. Denim jacket), western lifestyle (e.g. partying, bilingual schools, shaving of mustache, etc) to describe the force of westernization & capitalism, which are seen as "decadence" in the eyes of the fundamentalists. Thus, through symbolism, Satrapi has been able to show us the clash of cultures, and the transformation of society after the revolution itself. And not all of these symbols are revealed through solely the pictures in the novel. My memory of the novel is a bit blurred at the moment, but I bet you can find a lot more literary devices that Satrapi has used to describe her themes. 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisncal2 Posted December 23, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2014 Thank you so much, also, do you know when quoting the panels from the graphic novel, whether I have to insert the panels themselves in the essay? Would that disrupt the flow of the paragraph? Or is it sufficient to just cite Panel 2, Page 114, etc, Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vioh Posted December 24, 2014 Report Share Posted December 24, 2014 Thank you so much, also, do you know when quoting the panels from the graphic novel, whether I have to insert the panels themselves in the essay? Would that disrupt the flow of the paragraph? Or is it sufficient to just cite Panel 2, Page 114, etc, I think it is a bit odd to directly quote the panels from the novel. Inserting the panels themselves in the essay is absolutely out of the question. I mean the essay is not about art...... Don't be too specific. I think it's enough to just mention the page number, or a specific section, and then describe your idea about these panels. For examples:- On page 14, Satrapi draws ..... bla bla bla...., to show.... bla bla bla....- Throughout chapter 1, Satrapi tries to show .....bla bla bla..... by drawing.... bla bla bla.... Hope this helps! Feel free to ask if there are any further questions. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisncal2 Posted January 1, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2015 Sorry for the late response, but yes that makes much more sense, thank you so much for all your help :-) Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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