Project Report (M.Pub.) - Simon Fraser University, 2005. / Project Report (Master of Publishing Program) / Simon Fraser University. Also issued in digital format and available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Indiana University of Pennsylvania. / Includes bibliographical references.

Undergraduate honors paper--Mount Holyoke College, 2008. Dept. of English. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 130-131).

This thesis reclaims the analysis of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. It is mindful of analysis of the stereotypical, and partial tendencies of orientalist representations of Satrapi’s work by both Iranian officials and “Western” media and readership. Themes are detected from this analysis and pertain to the message and intention of the author to create her work. The intentio lectoris1 (i.e. what audiences believe or led to believe) proposed that orientalist paradigms present the meaning of the work or Satrapi’s agenda, i.e. the intentio auctoris. Persepolis has been enthusiastically received all around the world, except in Iran. It has been described and interpreted as the critique of a courageous girl against the foundations of the Iranian Islamic Republic. Notwithstanding the success, the graphic novel and the animated movie derived from it in 2007 have been banned by the Iranian government, and subsequently Marjane Satrapi has been refused entry into the country. The polarised reception of Satrapi’s work in Iran and worldwide, is contextualised within (neo) orientalist critique. I detect in these receptions both potentials and problems. Reclaiming aspects of Persepolis’ analysis that have been excluded from and therefore devalued by external agencies is affirmed as a necessary and important contribution. However, I note that the overwhelming reluctance amongst “Western” media and news reporters to speak of Satrapi’s dual and neutral position, or to grasp at specificity her intentio auctoris, prevents us from a thorough discussion of their analysis. Satrapi’s work is ultimately left in the hands of clichés. I attempt to analyse Persepolis in such a way that it not only affirms rationality, fluidity, and duality, but also offers new and beneficial ways to argue Satrapi’s position and intention. My thesis is thus partly rooted in a feminist standpoint perspective to give voice to Satrapi’s agenda. What is more, it converses with similar restrictive regulations and contextualises them within an analysis of selected post-revolutionary autobiographical literature. My ultimate goal is to analyse the Iranian position towards Persepolis by making sense of the theological and political thought of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Revolution, and the concept of velayat-e faqih (guardianship of the jurists) and the national and international responses to it in a way in which to take and transform the representation of Persepolis and Iranian culture consequently. This is done by explaining the current Iranian situation and Iranian responses to internal and external threats. Theological analyses and the explication of some of the historical complexities affecting modern Iran (especially after the revolution) would be beneficial along the way.

This thesis explores journeys of faith and survival in three Jewish graphic novels: A Contract with God by Will Eisner, The Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar, and We Are On Our Own by Miriam Katin. In each of these texts, the protagonists struggle with their faith and relationship with God, as they negotiate challenges as Jews living in largely unreceptive spaces. Along their journeys, the protagonists confront God in their own ways to try to make sense of the role that faith and Judaism plays in their lives. Drawing on basic principles of the relationship between Jew and God, as well as terms and concepts concerning the aesthetic construction of comics, this thesis probes into the nature of these journeys and the impact they have on the protagonists' physical and spiritual survival.

This thesis explores journeys of faith and survival in three Jewish graphic novels: A Contract with God by Will Eisner, The Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar, and We Are On Our Own by Miriam Katin. In each of these texts, the protagonists struggle with their faith and relationship with God, as they negotiate challenges as Jews living in largely unreceptive spaces. Along their journeys, the protagonists confront God in their own ways to try to make sense of the role that faith and Judaism plays in their lives. Drawing on basic principles of the relationship between Jew and God, as well as terms and concepts concerning the aesthetic construction of comics, this thesis probes into the nature of these journeys and the impact they have on the protagonists' physical and spiritual survival.

This thesis explores journeys of faith and survival in three Jewish graphic novels: A Contract with God by Will Eisner, The Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar, and We Are On Our Own by Miriam Katin. In each of these texts, the protagonists struggle with their faith and relationship with God, as they negotiate challenges as Jews living in largely unreceptive spaces. Along their journeys, the protagonists confront God in their own ways to try to make sense of the role that faith and Judaism plays in their lives. Drawing on basic principles of the relationship between Jew and God, as well as terms and concepts concerning the aesthetic construction of comics, this thesis probes into the nature of these journeys and the impact they have on the protagonists' physical and spiritual survival. / Arts, Faculty of / Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School of / Graduate

Par une étude de cas portant sur les représentations de Louis Riel en bande dessinée, cet essai tente de comprendre comment les différentes composantes, constitutive du médium, sont mise en œuvre pour effectuer la mise en forme du discours historique de genre biographique. Quelle est donc la nature de ce discours? Est-il possible de lui accorder une quelconque légitimité historique? En analysant le parcours historique de la bande dessinée et son traitement en tant qu’objet culturel je vais démontrer que le médium continue de porter les stigmates de son passé et que les préjugés à son encontre constituent un obstacle à la reconnaissance de la crédibilité de son discours. La bande dessinée serait un art mineur, un sous-genre littéraire destiné, de par son essence, à traiter sur un ton léger et amusant les différents sujets qu’elle aborde. Pourtant, en prenant en considération les questionnements de nature épistémologique sur la discipline historique et plus particulièrement ceux sur le processus de mise en forme du discours biographique, on constate que la bande dessinée possède les composantes nécessaires pour soutenir une narration historique. En analysant à la fois sa forme et son contenu et en dressant des éléments de comparaison avec l’historiographie de Louis Riel, je vais démontrer que la bande dessinée constitue un médium postmoderne présentant un discours historique original et crédible.

Par une étude de cas portant sur les représentations de Louis Riel en bande dessinée, cet essai tente de comprendre comment les différentes composantes, constitutive du médium, sont mise en œuvre pour effectuer la mise en forme du discours historique de genre biographique. Quelle est donc la nature de ce discours? Est-il possible de lui accorder une quelconque légitimité historique? En analysant le parcours historique de la bande dessinée et son traitement en tant qu’objet culturel je vais démontrer que le médium continue de porter les stigmates de son passé et que les préjugés à son encontre constituent un obstacle à la reconnaissance de la crédibilité de son discours. La bande dessinée serait un art mineur, un sous-genre littéraire destiné, de par son essence, à traiter sur un ton léger et amusant les différents sujets qu’elle aborde. Pourtant, en prenant en considération les questionnements de nature épistémologique sur la discipline historique et plus particulièrement ceux sur le processus de mise en forme du discours biographique, on constate que la bande dessinée possède les composantes nécessaires pour soutenir une narration historique. En analysant à la fois sa forme et son contenu et en dressant des éléments de comparaison avec l’historiographie de Louis Riel, je vais démontrer que la bande dessinée constitue un médium postmoderne présentant un discours historique original et crédible.

Canadian superhero comic books represent a politically significant opportunity to study popular conceptions of national politics, cultures, and identities. Canadian superheroes are 'others' in the shadow their American neighbours, but embrace this 'Not-American otherness' as a central factor defining Canadian national identity. The diversity of Canadian multiculturalism collapses into a monolithic white/male/Anglophone identity produced in the tensions created by the binary relmionship between 'self-as-other' and 'American' articulated by the texts, creating one universalised and naturalised "Canadian" identity. This thesis seeks to politicise existing surveys that ignore the political implications of the comic book texts, and to critique other problematic methodologies in the comics discourse: tendencies towards canon-building, and resistance to interdisciplinary methodologies. I forward a social/cultural/political analysis that draws equally on my multiple backgrounds and subject positions as a university-educated art historian, a popular culture critic, a Canadian, and a (feminist) reader and fan of superhero comic books. / Graduate