Mind Presentation in Graphic Narrative: A Re-contextualization of Narrative Theory in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis سبر أغوار العقل في السرد الرسومي: إعادة صياغة السرد في رواية "برسيبوليس" لمارجين ساترابي

The emerging academic canon of graphic fiction reflects the influence of alliances with other disciplines like gender, post-colonial, Marxist and autobiographical studies to further prove the interdisciplinarity of this medium of narrative.  As graphic novels gain recognition as powerful communication tools, researchers are increasingly drawn to studying them. Accordingly, the study of graphic narrative as a multimodal Narrative becomes the primal concern of scholars of contemporary (post-classical) narratology. This paper examines the medium-specific features of graphic narrative as re-contextualized narrative techniques to explore dimensions of meaning in Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical memoir – Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (2003). The study attempts to prove that the complexity of the graphic medium of narrative that combines the verbal and visual modes of narration enables the reader to explore more layers of meaning that wouldn’t be clear in a traditional verbal narrative. This method allows for a deeper exploration of the graphic novel's intricacies and hidden nuances. The analysis demonstrates the literary value of graphic novels and challenges perspectives that undermine their potential and significance in literature. The study is guided by the works of prominent theorists who contributed to graphic narrative such as Will Eisner (1917–2005), Scott McCloud (1960), and Hillary Chute (1976). Their insights into the medium-specific features of graphic novels provide a strong foundation for this paper’s argument, proving graphic novels to possess a distinct visual-verbal language for expressing ideas and narratives.