Enter: the Narrator

1. Enter: the Narrator 30 January 2014

2. The Illusion of representation and simplicity Mimesis and diegesis; imitation and narration Plato, Aristotle Modern criticism: discourse and narrative, narratology For the “low literature”, a presupposed simplicity? Images “show” and dialogues (mimesis) tell? The narrative would be minimal? narration point of view style discourse

3. Discourse and Narrative Emile Benveniste (1902– 1976) : enunciation pertains to the conditions of the message. A pivotal concept in Benveniste's work is the distinction between the énoncé and the énonciation, which grew out of his study on pronouns. The énoncé is the statement independent of context, whereas the énonciation is the act of stating as tied to context. In essence, this distinction moved Benveniste to see language itself as a "discursive instance”, fundamentally as discourse. This discourse is, in turn, the actual utilisation, the very enactment, of language.

4. Autobiographical Comics Robert Crumb Harvey Pekar Joe Matt Julie Doucet All four cartoonists would shortly join Drawn and Quarterly and become associated with one another to the public. Art Spiegelman Chester Brown

5. A tapestry Personal story National History National Identity Birth of a writer

6. Persepoliswas the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire (ca. 550-330 BCE). Situated 70 km northeast of the modern city of Shiraz in the Fars Province of modern Iran.

7. Achaemenids The Achaemenid Empire (Old Persian Parsa) (c. 550–330 BCE), sometimes known as First Persian Empire, was founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation. It expanded to eventually rule over significant portions of the ancient world which at around 500 BCE stretched from the Indus Valley in the east, to Thrace and Macedon on the northeastern border of Greece making it the biggest empire the world had yet seen.

11. The Iran crisis of 1946, also known as the Iran-Azerbaijan Crisis, followed the end of World War II and stemmed from the Soviet Union's refusal to relinquish occupied Iranian territory, despite repeated assurances. Azerbaijani Democratic Party (ADP) formed in September 1945 headed by JafarPishevari, a long-time leader of the revolutionary movement in Gilan.

12. ADP expanded throughout Iranian Azerbaijan, and initiated a local coup d'état with help from Soviet army, who prevented the Iranian army from intervening. During the first week of September 1945, the Azerbaijani Democratic Party, declared itself to be in control of Iranian Azerbaijan, promised liberal democratic reforms, and disbanded the local branch of Tudeh.

13. In mid December 1946, the US supported the shah’s government to send the Iranian army to re-occupied Mahabad and Azerbaijan. The leaders of the Azerbaijan enclave in Iran fled to the Azerbaijan SSR, and the leaders of the Kurdish Republic were tried and sentenced to death. They were hanged in Chwarchira Square in the center of Mahabad in 1947.

14. The Tudeh Party of Iran ("Party of the Masses of Iran”) is an Iranian communist party. Formed in 1941, with Soleiman Mohsen Eskandari as its head, it had considerable influence in its early years and played an important role during Mohammad Mosaddeq's(1882-1967) campaign to nationalize the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and his term as prime minister.

15. The crackdown that followed the 1953 coup against Mosaddeq is said to have "destroyed" the party, although it continued. The party still exists, but is much weaker as a result of the banning of the party and mass arrests by the Islamic Republic in 1982 and the executions of political prisoners in 1988.

16. The Iranian Revolution (also known as the Islamic Revolution or 1979 Revolution) refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy (Pahlavi dynasty) under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution. Demonstrations against the Shah commenced in October 1977, developing into a campaign of civil resistance that was partly secular and partly religious, and intensified in January 1978.

17. The Shah left Iran for exile in mid-January 1979, and in the resulting power vacuum two weeks later Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran to a greeting by several million Iranians.

18. Through her maternal grand-father, (Prime Minister under Shah Reza Pahlavi), MarjaneSatrapi is the great grand douaghter of the last Shah of the Kadjar Dynasty, Ahmad Shah Qajar.

19. L'Association is a French publishing house which publishes comic books. It was founded in May 1990 by Jean-Christophe Menu, Lewis Trondheim, David B., MatttKonture, Patrice Killoffer, Stanislas, and Mokeït, who left soon thereafter. Currently, of the original founding members, only Menu and Konture continue to be affiliated with the company.

20. L'Association was one of the most important publishers to come out of the new wave of Franco-Belgian comics in the 1990s, being among the first to publish authors such as Joann Sfar and MarjaneSatrapi.

21. Drawn and Quarterly is a Canadian comic book publishing company, headed by Chris Oliveros, and based in Montreal, Quebec. Its focus is on graphic novels and underground or alternative comics. Drawn and Quarterly was also the title of the company's flagship quarterly anthology during the 1990s. The name of the company is a pun on "drawing," "quarterly," and the practice of hanging, drawing and quartering.