PETRO-WARFARE AND DEPARTED CHILDHOOD: A STUDY OF MARJANE SATRAPI’S PERSEPOLIS AS A PETROFICTION

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.