Maus

Much attention has been given to Maus, created by Art Spiegelman, who chose a controversial topic to be discussed within the form of a graphic novel. There are many questions about the role of art within literature in modern society, and how an artist can confront such difficult topics as the Holocaust. Although, through the story of Maus, it can be clearly investigated that the ways in which the story is told, can uncover more about the Holocaust than a regular novel could. With such advantages as the figurative narrative, the metaphors and hidden means within the novel, Maus has greater possibility to explain the many different sides and stories behind the Holocaust.

How suffering can be given a voice in art, is a main concern when developing the narrative within a graphic novel.   With having illustrations and small amounts of explanation one might think you could lose or destroy the real meaning of the story.   Many authors of graphic novels do not pay much attention to narrative, but to the specific readings graphically, as crucial units of the novels language. Contributing to this thinking, of a well known global crisis such as the Holocaust (in the works of Art Spiegelman), in ways of representation is how the medium of a comic can approach and express seriousness with history itself. "I'm literally giving a form to my father's words and narrative," Spiegelman observes about Maus, "and that form has to do with panel size, panel rhythms, and visual structures of the page"( Hillary Chute 200)   In the form of a comic the two narrative tracks never fully explain each other. You have different boxes and panels explaining a specific moment of time and you are able to see them all at once; in comic’s you’re being made aware of different times in the same space. (Hillary Chute 201) If we recognize how Maus is able to effectively approach history through these panels, that one can appreciate the form’s grasp on the variations of political expression.

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