Therefore, when using Naficy's term exile cultural production or the term Iranian diaspora, I do not intend to suggest that these are unrelated or conflicting concepts.Ģ9 See for example, Naficy, Hamid, An Accented Cinema: Exilic and Diasporic Filmmaking ( Princeton, 2001) CrossRef Google Scholar. Finally, while taking the work of these scholars seriously, this essay insists that semantics not preclude subjects' own understandings of who they are, with whom they hold primary relationships, and how they conceive of the community or communities around them.

It should be noted that not all exiles live in diaspora as defined here-indeed, Satrapi's experience in Austria speaks to this community-less experience of exile in Persepolis. In addition, I would argue that the distinction between exile and diaspora is not a comparison between two equal but different notions, but that diaspora requires the existence of communities within which exiles may be (but are not always) included. Rather, acknowledging the significant contributions of Safran, Cohen, Gilroy, Marienstras and others to the study of diasporas, and responding to the changes within diasporas and exile that require fluid definitions of both terms, this essay will assume the notion of diaspora as defined by Ted Swedenberg and Smadar Lavie, who argue that exiles can and often do live within diaspora: “ Diaspora refers to the doubled relationship or dual loyalty that migrants, exiles, and refugees have to places-their connections to the space they currently occupy and their continuing involvement with ‘back home.’” See Lavie, Smadar and Swedenburg, Ted, Displacement, Diaspora, and Geographies of Identity ( Durham, 1996), 14 Google Scholar. Due to space constraints, I will not go into the numerous arguments regarding these terms. 5 From the outset, I would like to clarify my use of the terms diaspora and exile.

Marjane satrapi's