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how everyone in the group relates to the memoir (theme, characters, plot)

Everyone has approached the memoir on a factual front with evidence to support their findings.

AP approached Spigelman's past using factual evidence of his early life, education and adult life. AP also discusses the themes of guilt shown in the memoir and the themes of racism through visual metaphors of the characters.

Karen relates to the memoir by examining the reviews of Maus, its history and culture, and its purpose. Karen shows how Maus is received positively by the masses however it received critics of racism towards the races. Karen discusses how in the memoir; the cultural impact of its story history shows the rift between the Nazis and the Jews. She also approaches the purpose of Maus by examining its relatability and interest in younger readers.

Rin (TM) looks at the influences, career notes of importance, voice and tone of the memoir and significance of Maus’s title. Rin approaches Spiegelmans influences by explaining his connection with the events of Maus, and how it helped him move forward from his family hardships.  Rin looks at the voices of Maus by noting how there are two prominent types. Between Vladek and Spiegleman, she relates to this find saying how the reader finds the story more immersive through the emotions shown by these voices.

Hannah relates to the memoir specifically through characterization. While reading the memoir, Hannah couldn’t help but see the resemblance in stories between the plot of Maus and her own polish grandparents. Even the way Art Spiegelman integrated polish accents into the speech bubbles, for example, when the name “Anja” was used instead of Anna for characters with strong accents. Reading Maus just made Hannah think about her grandpa and how he would talk about the war, even his accent when saying “Hanjah”

D.L

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Technical Aspects

Characterization:

In Maus, Art Spegalmen depicted his characters in a visually interesting way with also a deeper meaning. Jewish people are drawn as mice, Polish people as pigs, and the nazis as cats. 

In this, there is an obvious parallel between the relationship between cats and mice and the relationship between Jewish people and nazis. Cats prey on mice. The way polish people are depicted as pigs tells the audience that even though regular polish people were not necessarily viewed as prey in nazi Germany, but were still viewed as lesser farm animals that needed to be cooped up and controlled. 

Images and Colour:

The comic style is definitely in a style popular back in 1970, that people most commonly might describe as the charlie brown comic style. With black and white pictures, most of the comic panels are drawn with shakey lines, with grey tones and cross-hatching. This style of the comic gives Maus a raw and genuine feel that I think enhances the memoir beautifully. 

-HB 

sources:

photos were taken by HB

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Works

List of Books by Art Spiegelman 

Maus: A Survivor's Tale : My Father Bleeds History

Art Spiegelman

Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began

The Complete Maus

In the Shadow of No Towers

MetaMaus: A Look Inside a Modern Classic, Maus

Jack and the Box

Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*!

Open Me...I'm a Dog

Little Lit: Folklore & Fairy Tale Funnies

Garbage Pail Kids

Little Lit: It Was a Dark and Silly Night...

Jack Cole and Plastic Man: Forms Stretched to Their Limits

The New Yorker Visits the Guggenheim

Co-Mix: A Retrospective of Comics, Graphics, and Scraps

Raw Volume 2 Number 2: Required

To Laugh That We May Not Weep: The Life And Art Of Art Young

Occupy Comics

witzend

Pen & Ink 

Best Of Witzend

Art Spiegelman: Comix, Essays, Graphics and Scraps: From Maus to Now to MAUS to Now

Holocaust As Subject

Read Yourself Raw

Küsse aus New York: Titelbilder und Zeichnungen für den New Yorker

The Comics Journal Special Edition: Winter 2004: Four Generations of Cartoonists

Be a Nose!

-HB

Source:

https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/art-spiegelman/198799/

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Awards

List of Awards

Playboy Editorial ‘Best comic strip’

Yellow Kid Award 

Regional Design awards

Joel M. Cavior Award for Jewish Writing

 National Book Critics Circle nomination

Inkpot Award

Stripschappenning Award 

1987 Special Pulitzer Prize

National Book Critics Circle award

Los Art Spiegelman Angeles Times book prize

-HB

source:

https://biography.jrank.org/pages/1465/Spiegelman-Art-1948-Awards-Honors.html

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Voice and Tone

Voice

      Throughout Maus there are two prominent voices. Vladek, the Holocaust survivor and the artist, Art Spiegelman. We see how the story unfolds from both their viewpoints. Through the first-person recounts, the reader finds the story more immersive as we start to feel what the narrator was feeling at that moment

Tone

Since Maus is told from both Vladek and Art’s point of view the tone of the graphic novel varies. With Vladek the tone is mature and dark but when it shifts to Art, the tone is more child-like, curious or even somber at times. Both Vladek and Art bring the tone of the novel to a more melancholic feel as they remember the trauma, loss, and memories of the past and the raw weight of the events

-TM

https://www.shmoop.com/maus/narrator-point-of-view.html

image

https://angeldanielmatos.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/maus-example-1.jpg

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‘Drawing Is Always a Struggle’: An Interview with Art Spiegelman

An interview with Art Spiegelman about what he is up to today regarding personal takes on politics and future works

Click here to check it out!

-HB

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Interview with Art Spiegelman about Maus’ success, as well as process of getting it published.

-HB 

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Structure

Image displaying the character animal representation taken from: “Comparison.” Maus: A Survivor's Tale - Home, https://belladalfonso.weebly.com/comparison.html.

The structure of Maus is part of why it became so successful, from its story arc and character development to his artistic display of the events. Spiegleman’s artistic choice of his characters is considered an anthropomorphic allegory. He drew the Jewish characters as mice, Nazis as cats, French as frogs and Polish as pigs. This unusual choice of characterization separates the reader from the notion of human brutality and more into the actions of the characters and their stories. The plot structure of Maus goes to show the horror of real life events that happened to real people, which cements the historic importance of this memoir as a representation that all ages can understand. Maus is an excellent example of using visual metaphors to tell its story. 

D.L 

Sources:

Adams, James, and James Adams. “Art Spiegelman at the AGO, and the Weighty Shadow of Maus.” The Globe and Mail, 5 June 2017, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/art-and-architecture/art-spiegelman-at-the-ago-and-the-weighty-shadow-of-maus/article22158632/.

Spiegelman, Art. “Maus I: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman - Teacher's Guide: 9780394747231 - PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books.” PenguinRandomhouse.com, Knopf, https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/171058/maus-i-a-survivors-tale-by-art-spiegelman/9780394747231/teachers-guide/. 

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Plot

Maus is part autobiography, history and biography in that it tells two separate stories.

The plot of the first story depicts Vladek as Spiegleman’s farther, and Artie as his younger self. Artie interviews his farther to get details on his survival of the war which shows the strained relationship they had though misunderstandings and abrasive remarks. Artie reluctantly takes care of his father during the time of their interviews. Over the course of the story, Artie learns how Vladek was captured by the Nazis, released and spent the following years in hiding and running from the Nazis to avoid Auschwitz.

The second part of the comic covers Artie’s time with his wife and more of Vladek’s story. While living together, Vladek continues from his interviews with how he was taken into Auschwitz. He explains the struggles living there, telling how he made himself valuable to the camp as a respected member. He tells of how Auschwitz was eventually shut down in 1944 and then freed in 1945. Vladek gets reunited with his lost wife in the following summer. The story ends with Vladek’s health failing followed by an abrupt end displaying his shared tombstone. 

D.L.

Sources:

“Maus Plot Summary.” Course Hero, https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Maus/plot-summary/. This source explains the plot of Maus’s two main stories with details on the events.

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Adult Life

1972 – Spiegelman publishes Maus and Prisoner on the Hell Planet. At this time, Maus was just a 3-page story. Maus documents the lives of his parents during the Holocaust, specifically following the activities of his father. Prisoner on the Hell Planet depicts the effects his mother’s suicide had on him and his father.

1978 – Spiegelman began teaching at the School of Visual Arts as a lecturer and editor.

1980- With his Wife Francois Mouly, Spiegelman created an underground comic anthology called “Raw” with the goal of presenting graphic novels as a mature storytelling platform. Spiegelman continued writing Maus that winter.

1996 – “The Complete Maus”, a collection of Maus I and MausII are published. Spiegalman’s book became a hit and he received awards for Maus and MausII. He went on to illustrate for even bigger companies such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, and even Playboy.

2000 – Mouly and Spiegelman create a comics anthology for children “Little Lit”. This anthology contained the stories of big authors like Lemony Snicket and Neil Gaiman.

2004 – Speigelman publishes “In the Shadow of No Towers” chronicling his reaction to the life-changing events of 9/11.  -AP

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Media Appearances

Art Spiegelman’s Maus has appeared in the media in various facets such as; art museums, public speakings, interview reviews, and television.

In 2009, Spiegelman gave a public lecture on the importance of comics in its history during the Comic Exhibit at UMC. Maus was the primary focus of this public appearance where its influential importance and value for the nation were examined in detail. In 2014, Maus was displayed in the AGO art gallery in Toronto. While Maus was the primary focus of this gallery, some of Spiegelman’s other work was also on display, ranging from his Topps Chewing Gum days to more recent work. In 2018, Spiegelman visited Gonzaga University to deliver his “What the %@&*! Happened to Comics?” speech. Students were able to partake in a question and answer session where they could understand better Spiegelman’s approach to his comics.

D.L.

Sources: 

“Author Art Spiegelman to Speak at CU Jan. 25 as Part of Comic Exhibit at UMC.” CU Boulder Today, 20 July 2016, https://www.colorado.edu/today/2009/01/08/author-art-spiegelman-speak-cu-jan-25-part-comic-exhibit-umc. 

Adams, James, and James Adams. “Art Spiegelman at the AGO, and the Weighty Shadow of Maus.” The Globe and Mail, 5 June 2017, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/art-and-architecture/art-spiegelman-at-the-ago-and-the-weighty-shadow-of-maus/article22158632/. 

26, September. “Art Spiegelman Talks Comics.” Gonzaga University, 26 Sept. 2018, https://www.gonzaga.edu/news-events/stories/2018/9/26/art-spiegelman-talks-comics. 

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Significance of Title

The title Maus stems from the German word for “mouse”. This is further emphasized with how Spiegelman portrayed the Jews as mice and the Nazis as cats. The subtitle, A Survivors Tale, may also be a pun of the word “tail”.

-TM

https://www.shmoop.com/maus/title.html

https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/152310/art-spiegelman-jewish-museum

image

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-veFR6uUZxC8/TXjO1dlBtII/AAAAAAAAAAw/WsrBY4mSWRk/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/MausMouseHolesArt.jpg

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Career Highs and Lows

Art Spiegelman attended Manhattan’s High School of Art and Design when his family moved to New York. He then continued on to have a career as a professional artist, selling illustrations to the Long Island Post. He first big art break was when he began his two-decade long run as a contributing artist and designer for Topps Chewing Gun. During that time, Spiegelman developed Garbage Pail Kids and Wacky Packages trading cards which were very successful.

Spiegelman went onward to the State University of New York from 1965-1968 while exploring the alternative comix and comics scene. In 1968, with his mother’s suicide, he left college a year early and then spent the early 1970s contributing to the underground comics industry. During this 0time, he published the three-page version of Maus and Prisoner on the Hell Planet, which was an attempt to understand his mother’s suicide, in Justin Green’s Funny Animals anthology. Both of these works, amongst others were also included in Breakdowns

In 1980, he co-founded RAW (Real Art Works), an underground comic and graphic anthology, with his wife, François Mouly. In RAW’s second issue, he continued Maus, thus pushing Spiegelman into the mainstream comics world. The work on Maus had led Spiegelman to work at the New York Times as an illustrator, a Playboy cartoonist, and a staff artist and writer for the New Yorker. Despite the years that have passed by, Spiegelman’s work has been continued to be viewed as a class by the comics industry.

-TM

 Career High and Lows

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Art-Spiegelman

image

https://cdn.filepicker.io/api/file/LtjQTxr3QBmASqAjZU3y/convert?fit=max&h=874&w=1312&compress=true

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Influences

The concept of Maus was influenced by Art Spiegelman’s parents, Vladek and Anja, both of who were survivors of the Auschwitz death camp. Spiegelman used the story as a way to become closer to his father after his mother had committed suicide. He used their experiences for an assignment for a three-page comic in 1972. This way he showed their emotional trauma from the Holocaust. Even after completing the comic, Spiegelman felt that he needed more from the story. He then visited his father once again with a tape recorder in tow to get more content for Maus.

Throughout his budding career, Spiegelman found inspiration in Mad comics. He felt that the comics had shaped him were “particularly anti-authoritarian”. During an interview with IndieBound, Spiegelman said that he “can’t tell how things influenced him”, but found some sort of inspiration through several artists like Vladimir Nabokov, Gertrude Stein, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and James Cain

-TM

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2016/08/11/why-maus-remains-the-greatest-graphic-novel-ever-written-30-years-later/

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Art-Spiegelman

https://www.indiebound.org/author-interviews/spiegelmanart

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/interviews/a25954/art-spiegelman-interview/

image

https://www.bobwelbaum-author.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/220px-Madhk1.jpg

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PURPOSE

Spiegelman’s purpose for creating Maus was to showcase a graphic memoir of his family’s experiences during the Holocaust. It intimately told stories of the Jewish sufferings and Nazi oppression to the readers to spread awareness. Maus itself contains numerous amounts of deeper context and symbolism in the details that drive the story. Its simplified story and relatable events made it adults drawn to it.  

The draftsmanship of Spiegelman is an excellent style that is suitable for children to read. It's simple, cartoony, and friendly to the eye. Thus making it easy to digest for young audiences to academically learn about the Holocaust. It would inspire many to look more into World War 2 and educate themselves about the events in the comic. 

Being widely popular and accepted through these concepts, it successfully spreads awareness to people around the world of all kinds about the lives that were sacrificed.

-KL

Kois, Dan. "The Making of ‘Maus’." The New York Times. The New York Times, 03 Dec. 2011. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

Cooke, Rachel. "Art Spiegelman: 'Auschwitz Became for Us a Safe Place'"The Guardian. N.p., 23 Oct. 2011. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

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HISTORICAL, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANALYSIS

The social and cultural context in Maus is essentially a historical retelling through the author’s first-hand experience in living through the Holocaust. 

The rise of the Nazi party was because of Germany’s struggle to handle its fallen state after losing in the First World War. They lost territory and reduce their military. Paying off the Treaty of Versailles with their crippled economy was virtually impossible for them. After deciding to loan money from the United States they eventually fall into further debt after the stock market crashes. Germany enters an economic depression from massive inflation and became desperate for guidance. 

Facing the humility from how far Germany had fallen, the people needed someone that could bounce back the country’s state. Hitler grew in popularity and was appointed Chancellor in 1933 by President Hindenburg. He then changes the government around and turns into a dictator. With Hitler’s views and big influence, they turn to put the blame onto the Jewish. Anti-Semitism and Nationalism was deeply rooted in countries back then; it was easy to take advantage of the situation.

-KL

Evans, Richard J. (2003). The Coming of the Third Reich. New York: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-303469-8.

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RECEPTION & REVIEWS

Maus is considered a very important Holocaust literature work that made a very big impact on studies for the Holocaust. At the beginning of the release, a lot of critics were not accepting of literary discourse being depicted in comics. Spiegelman depicted the characters in his comics as animals, using it as a metaphor in his storytelling. People accused him of reinforcing racist stereotypes and it being counterfactual to what he was trying to tell about the Holocaust. 

After its first volume was published it received highly positive reviews by the masses. Maus became an adult graphic novel that was one of the top three most mainstream comics that changed the perception of comics. “Art Spiegelman doesn’t draw comic books”, was a compliment given by The New York Times. They would eventually give in to his request of moving Maus into the non-fiction list in their newspaper’s best selling section. Also, Maus was so popular there was some backlash from those who questioned if Maus was worthy of such awards.

-KL

Kaplan 2008, p. 172; Sabin 1993, p. 246; Stringer 1996, p. 262; Ahrens & Meteling 2010, p. 1; Williams & Lyons 2010, p. 7.

Witek, Joseph (1989). Comic Books as History: The Narrative Art of Jack Jackson, Art Spiegelman, and Harvey Pekar. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-0-87805-406-0.

Witek, Joseph (2004). "Imagetext, or, Why Art Spiegelman Doesn't Draw Comics". ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies. University of Florida. 1 (1). ISSN 1549-6732. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved April 16, 2012.

Russell, Vanessa (2008). "The Mild-Mannered Reporter: How Clark Kent Surpassed Superman". In Ndalianis, Angela (ed.). The Contemporary Comic Book Superhero. Taylor & Francis. pp. 216–232. ISBN 978-0-415-99176-6.

Loman, Andrew (2010). "The Canonization of Maus". In Williams, Paul; Lyons, James (eds.). The Rise of the American Comics Artist: Creators and Contexts. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-60473-792-9.