Memoria storica e memoria di vita: Persepolis di Marjane Satrapi e il valore dell'immagine nell'autobiografia a fumetti

This paper aims to assess the value of the image in Persepolis (2000-2003) by Iranian author Marjane Satrapi, a work that primarily draws on autobiographical sources. Intertwining her personal experiences with the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988. Particular attention will be dedicated to the analysis of Satrapi’s minimalist style, which fits into the broader discourse on the impossibility of realistically representing trauma and the consequent tendency to allegorize its content. Alongside Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home (2006), Persepolis represents one of the most significant texts in the autobiographical comic genre. One of the main characteristics of this comics’ genre is the connection between the author’s memories and their graphic representation, often linked to the reconstruction of traumatic events. In the case of Persepolis, it is interesting to note how Satrapi’s style tends to be less realistic, with lines that, in the first part, even approach Hergé’s ligne claire. At the same time, one catches a stylistic evolution marking the transition from the narrative of childhood to that of adolescence, as if the memories became sharper, creating a thread that links the character’s growing awareness to that of the author, thanks to a skilful fusion between image and content. In Satrapi’s memoir, therefore, historical memory and life memory are inextricably intertwined, layingthe foundations for a work that does not merely consist in an episodic collection of events, but emerges as «a product of the author, an artifact created and coloured by the identity and consciousness of its creator».