Exploring Readerly Alignments and Theoretical Tensions in Satrapi’s Persepolis

“I cannot take the idea of a man cut into pieces and just write it. It would not be anything but cynical. That’s why I drew it ” (Marjane Satrapi on the visual-verbal methodology of Persepolis qtd. in Chute, p. 151) “I think that when you have themes of a certain extent, when they involve violence or difficult subjects so much, you often get to a point when you’re writing about them with words, that you just can’t keep writing. ” (an adolescent reader on the visual-verbal methodology of Persepolis) Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel, Persepolis (2004, 2005), has been the subject of both theoretical, textual analysis and debates of readership. In her book, Satrapi draws from visual and verbal modes in order to depict her childhood journey of living through the Iranian Revolution. As a text dense with historical facts told through black and white images, Persepoli