The art of maus
When Maus I was first published in 1986, Art Spiegelman became the center of controversy. With his use of a typically 'lower' writing form and seemingly lighthearted approach to expressing his views on the holocaust, Spiegelman defied modern writing rules and defined his own. Comic books are usually seen as being a tool for telling fictional stories. Spiegelman used it to tell a biography of himself and his father, and a history of his people. Originally classified as fiction on the national best-seller list, Spiegelman insisted that it be put on the non-fiction list, arguing that its content and topic was entirely non-fictional. Some felt that the use of a drawn media such as cartoons desensitized the meaning and pain of the war and Holocaust. Spiegelman's use of comic media does exactly the opposite and portrays a much harsher picture and feeling of personal pain for the reader to identify with. "...it supercedes the traditional genre in terms of the scope of its presentation ...[and] it presents a historical catastrophe in a medium usually reserved for hero-construction and morality play." (Leventhal) In the book, Artie tries to express his own pain of loss and even more, tries to find a way for the reader to emotional
It requires deeper involvement from the reader and gives a more accurate sense of time and space, something that can often be confusing and hinder writing done strictly in narratives. In the middle of the story, Vladek will yell at Artie for dropping ashes on the carpet (Speigelman, 52) or spilling Vladek's pills. Because Maus I focuses on Artie's present and Vladek's past the "visual contrast between past and present becomes a constant reminder of the difficulty, perhaps even the impossibility of fitting in the father's experiences into the framework of an easy, regular, and predictable pattern. Comics are often thought of as an item of popular culture rather than sophisticated literature and have been stigmatized by its reputation as a children's source of reading. Speigelman uses the boxes to parallel Artie's story of interviewing his father and his father story that he is telling to Artie. The actual content of the comics have been shunned and left for only true 'fans' to interpret and analyze. Comics and cartoons have always been viewed with disdain in society. This style also prevents the reader from becoming too involved into Vladek's story and forgetting about the original purpose of telling Artie's story as a writer. As Speigelman broke the traditional limits of comic medium, the book itself broke many rules and standards originally set for comic books. These metaphors, which are meant to self-destruct in my book -- and I think they do self-destruct -- still have a residual force and still get people worked up over them. He subverts the comic book nature by writing about something seriously not comical and his use of talking animals makes a seemingly humorous tale decidedly very unfunny. The idea that he must continually read and then go back for unanswered questions is abandoned and gives freedom to the reader. " The commonality of the species dissipates as the story progresses and the reader starts to realize that the characters break away from the stereotypes, despite the drawn depictions. Speigelman was aware of this and commented:Ultimately what the book's about is the commonality of human beings.
Common topics in this essay:
Speigelman's Maus,
Artie's Vladek's,
Nazis Jews,
Holocaust Comics,
Art Spiegelman,
Pulitzer Prize,
Holocaust Spiegelman's,
,
critics feel,
comic books,
text image,
artie's story,
page reader,
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Acceptance Essays
