A critical study of graphic novels: spiegelman’s maus and satrapi’s persepolis

Abstract

This thesis exhibits how the intense contents and themes of graphic novels can be credible in venturing its way into the academic world of English literature, particularly in Bangladesh. To accomplish this purpose I intend to analyse two graphic novels, namely Art Spiegelman’s The Complete Maus (2003) and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis I & II (2000,2003) through the theoretical lens of postmodern and cultural studies. The first part will scrutinise the narrative technique of both graphic novels. Both have several postmodern narrative techniques which, eventually, give an alternative meta-history of the Holocaust in the Second World War and the Islamic Revolution of 1979 in Iran. This part will be followed by the representation of politics in both texts, arguing that by manipulating a popular genre like graphic novels, these texts deal with complex political turmoil within which the texts are situated. My textual analysis will be followed by a discussion where I deal with the possibility of academic inclusion of the graphic novels in the advance level studies of English literature in Bangladesh. This thesis will make use of the theoretical frameworks formulated by Linda Hutchinson, Fredric Jameson and Stuart Hall.