"Jag visste inte vad jag skulle tycka om sjalen" : En genusteoretisk och postkolonial analys av Marjane Satrapis serieroman Persepolis

The purpose of this essay is to examine Marjane Satrapi’s comic novel Persepolis from a gender and postcolonial perspective. To reach this I have used several theories from mainly three different fields of theory: gender studies, postcolonial theories and theoretical texts which focus on the form of comics. My analysis has shown that idols, heroes and other cultural symbols are important for the creation of the main character Marji’s identity, but that she at the same time has many Marxistic influences. These casts of mind do not stand in opposition, but become an expression for her hybridity. Furthermore, the analysis has shown that the regime of Persepolis’ Iran uses the marriage, the veil, the virgin and the whore as stereotype to maintain and re-produce the norms of gender. These different factors are used as parallels to force women into the marriage and along with that also into the contract of gender. But the veil also becomes a symbol for how the official exterior of the characters’ is a facade outside their private sphere. The veil and its facade becomes in this way a prerequisite of resistance against the regime. The trans-national and hybrid identity of Marji are therefore influenced by both Iranian and Austrian thoughts, political and religious conviction, and all of these factors can co-exist, without objecting to each other. Marji uses this hybrid identity to make resistance against both the Iranian regime and the structures of stereotypical gendering