Join LITS for a screening of Persepolis on Friday, December 2nd from 3 to 4:45 p.m in Dwight 101!
Persepolis started as an autobiographical comic written by Marjane Satrapi that details her experiences as a young girl during the Islamic Revolution in Iran. In 2014 the American Library Association placed it at #2 on their list of the ten most challenged books of the year after three separate attempts to censor the book occurred.
In 2007 the book was adapted into an Oscar-nominated animated film by Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud.
Want to read or watch Persepolis?
Borrow the book from the library.
Borrow the DVD from the library.
Stream the film through LITS' Academic Video Online (AVON) subscription.
One of the most prominent challenges to Persepolis happened in 2013, when it was removed from the seventh grade curriculum in the Chicago Public School system. See below for a selection of contemporaneous coverage of this challenge:
Persepolis removed from Chicago Public Schools for “graphic illustrations and language”; OIF & FTRF respond -- Intellectual Freedom Blog, The Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association; March 15, 2013
CPS students were driving force in protest against book ban -- The Chicago Tribune; March 15, 2013
CPS order to pull graphic novel sparks protests, outrage -- The Chicago Tribune; March 16, 2013
Persepolis battle in Chicago schools provokes outcry -- The Guardian; March 19, 2013
Chicago Teachers Union calls "Persepolis" ban "Orwellian" -- Salon; March 20, 2013
