Maus by Art Spiegelman is a memoir based on his father, Vladek Spiegelman’s experiences as a Polish, Jewish person and Holocaust survivor. Like many holocaust narratives, the events depicted are absolutely gruesome and sometimes difficult to read. The graphic novel is gripping and intense, but also tender and light-hearted. It engages with national stereotypes, depicting Jewish people as mice, Germans as cats and Polish people as pigs, while discussing the inevitable rise of fascism and the psychological and physical cost it takes on communities. Despite its anthropomorphism, the text humanizes the holocaust and brings its insurmountable scope within a visible periphery.
The black-and-white artwork is reasonably simplistic at times, but remains inventive with a real impact on the reader. The use of animals lends itself to creative and sometimes frightening imagery. The narrative is not entirely chronological and sometimes zooms out to incorporate information we only discovered after the war, linking the personal to the political and vice versa.
The first graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Award in 1992, it launched the idea that graphic novels could be sophisticated and not just for children. It received (and still receives) significant academic attention in the field of Comic Studies, Holocaust Studies and Literature and is taught here at the University of Leicester in Representing the Holocaust and Children’s and Young Adult Fiction. Check out the Harvard’s Gazette 2017 interview with Spiegelman to discover how Maus endures and remains relevant. For those of you whose interest has been peaked, The David Wilson Library has several copies available at the library as well as the interactive MetaMaus, which includes deleted scenes, additional research material and interviews with Art Spiegelman.
