Maus Art Spiegelman

1. MausArt Spiegelman Part I My Father Bleeds History Part II And Here My Troubles Began

2. Art Spiegelman • Born in Stockholm, Sweden (2/15/48) and immigrated to the United States with his parents when he was very young • Studied art and philosophy at Harpur College. • When he left college in 1968, he became part of the underground comix movement.

3. The Underground Comix (sic) Movement • The term "underground comix" describes the art form which originated in the US in the 1960s. Usually sold in what were known as "head shops," underground comix generally reflected the rebellious mood of the 1960s counterculture movement: down with the establishment; make love - not war; drugs; rock n’ roll; women’s liberation, and eventually save the whales and most of the other social issues of the day.

4. The Underground Comix Movement

5. This is what people were used to seeing in comics in the 60’s :

6. Art Speigelman • 1980 – began the magazine “Raw” with his wife, Francoise Mouly (This is where Mauswas first written as an insert in the magazine ) • Illustrated for “The New Yorker” • Won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 … but not without some controversy

7. Medium • Graphic Novel - a book made up of comics content. Although the word "novel" normally refers to long fictional works, the term "graphic novel" is applied broadly, and includes fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work. It is distinguished from the term “comic book", which is used for comics periodicals. • Is it memoir? Post Memoir? • Fable? (hear me out…)

8. Critically Aclaimed Graphic Novels

9. Subject Matter • Maus tells the story of Spiegelman’s father, Vladek, and his experience as a Polish Jew during the Holocaust. Running parallel to the story is the story of Spiegelman’s interactions with his father as he visits his father on numerous occasions to record his memories. • All of the characters are represented as animals: the Jews are mice, the Germans are cats, the Americans are dogs, and so on. • Within this seemingly simplistic framework, Maus confronts the terrifying reality of the Holocaust, the systematic genocide of millions and millions of Jews carried out by the Nazi regime during World War II.

10. Themes • Painful Memory • Survivor’s Guilt • The Dysfunctional Family Relationship • The Father / Son Relationship • Racism (and not just anti-Semitism) • The Horrors of the Holocaust and Genocide • The Power of Language/Speech

11. Animal Allegory / Metaphor • Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory • Perhaps the most obvious feature of Maus is its use of animals to represent different races and nationalities. • In representing the Jews as mice, Spiegelman is playing off the anti-Semitic stereotype of Jews as vermin or pests, as less than human.

12. Animal Allegory /Metaphor • For the rest of the menagerie, we have animals that in some way play off of a national characteristic. • The Germans are cats, predators who prey on the Jewish mice • The Americans are dogs who save the Jewish mice from the German cats. • The French are frogs • Gypsies are moths. • The Poles are pigs, which does not seem as random when we consider that the Nazis sometimes referred to the Poles as pigs

13. Animal Allegory / Metaphor • But again, Maus plays off the racial stereotypes, and even stereotypical thinking in general, by indicating where the allegory falls apart. The mice are not universally good, nor are the pigs universally good or bad. Mice can pass for other animals by wearing pig masks or cat masks. The allegory falls apart at times …

15. Prejudice , Stereotypes, and Scapegoats

16. The Holocaust • When did the Holocaust take place? • How many people were killed? • From which country were the most Jews killed? • What is “Anti-Semitism” ? http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/bldied.htm