LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 22:7 July 2022
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

Celebrate India!
Unity in Diversity!!

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIALS

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2022
M. S. Thirumalai

Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
11249 Oregon Circle
Bloomington, MN 55438
USA
Custom Search

Petro-Warfare and Departed Childhood:
A Study of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis as a Petrofiction

S. Jeyasiba Ponmani, M.A. and
Dr. Narasingaram Jayashree, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.


Courtesy: www.amazon.com

Abstract

Since the beginning, fuel resources have been imperative to sustain life on earth. The benchmark of civilisation is noted by the evolution in the usage of fuel resources over a period of time. Transformation from wood, tallow, coal, whale oil to fossil fuels saw the advent of modern industrialised society. The oil resources have played a significant role in designing the economic and historical construct of contemporary times. Petrofiction is the representation of the petroculture in literature. The greed for power and capital has modified oil from being an energy resource to a weapon for social, political and economic domination. The discovery of oil in Iran transformed the prospects of the country, and it became the battlefield of hegemony and politics. This paper aims to critically view Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novel Persepolis, as a petrofiction by analysing the historical setting and how oil propels the main action of the story. The consequences of the oil war, and how both the internal and external cues like trauma and war affect the behavioural pattern of the children, are studied using this graphic novel. Thus, the paper signifies the magnitude of the oil narratives, and their importance in the current anthropocene epoch.

Keywords: Marjane Satrapi, Persopolis, Petrofiction, Petroculture, Trauma, Oil war, Energy resources

The dynamics of modern life undoubtedly has been engineered around the presence of energy resources. The fossil fuels have seeped into all the nooks and crannies of the base and superstructure accounted for by the Marxist, the planes of interaction and interdependence of cultural, social, political and economic free-play of power and capital in the process of production. The discovery and the extraction of oil resources have rewritten the historical, economical, political and cultural value of the geographical space, thereby redefining their stand in the global market. No other raw material like oil offered a hope of well-being for an entire nation, a dream that sadly stands unrealised and has instead become a curse that is, “...identified with wars, greed, and unspeakable power plays orchestrated by transnational elites” (Preface, Maugeri xi). Today black gold occupies the centre stage and society is reduced to a mere puppet in the hands of oil.

Energy Humanities is an interdisciplinary field that has paved the way for dialogues between energy resources and their representation in humanities. It evaluates the relationship between energy and modernity and highlights how in the current era of climate crisis, oil narratives cannot be overlooked. The representation of oil exploration, extraction, exploitation and the aftermath of the exhaustion in literature is classified under the genre called petrofiction, a term coined by Amitav Ghosh. The peak oil situation and the power politics surrounding the petro- resources along with their significant impact on the ecosystem have made petrofiction a significant narrative in the anthropocene epoch: “Oil commands authority in modernist cultures, but its quick combustion raises perpetual problems that make the commodity a source of both power and crisis.” (Schuster 199)

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

S. Jeyasiba Ponmani, M.A.
Research Scholar
Department of English
PSGR Krishnammal College for Women
Coimbatore- 641004
sibasmiles@gmail.com
Phone: 9442831528

Dr. Narasingaram Jayashree, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of English
PSGR Krishnammal College for Women
Coimbatore - 641004
jayashree@psgrkcw.ac.in
Phone: 9952384783
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.