Maus
349114
225855179
2008-07-15T18:39:19Z
66.67.114.119
inclusion of quote explaning mice as inspiration for jews.
{{otheruses}}
{{Supercbbox| <!--Wikipedia:WikiProject Comics-->
title = Maus
| comic_color = background:#c0c0c0
| image = Maus.jpg
| caption = Cover of ''Maus'' Hardcover #1
| schedule =
| format = [[limited series]] [[graphic novel]]
| publisher = [[Pantheon Books]]
| date = 1973 to 1991
| issues =
| main_char_team =
| past_current_color = background:#ff9275
| writers = [[Art Spiegelman]]
| artists = Art Spiegelman
| pencillers =
| inkers =
| colorists =
}}
'''''Maus: A Survivor's Tale''''' is a memoir by [[Art Spiegelman]], presented as a [[graphic novel]]. It recounts the struggle of Spiegelman's father to survive the [[Holocaust]] as a [[Poland|Polish]] [[Jew]] and draws largely on his father's recollections of his experiences. The book also follows the author's troubled relationship with his father and the way the effects of war reverberate through generations of a family. In 1992, it won a [[Pulitzer Prize Special Citations and Awards|Pulitzer Prize Special Award]]. All people are presented as anthropomorphic animals (for example, all Jews are depicted as mice, hence the name Maus which is [[German language|German]] for "mouse"). The ''[[New York Times]]'' described the selection of ''Maus'' for the honor: "The Pulitzer board members ... found the cartoonist's depiction of [[Nazi Germany]] hard to classify."<ref>{{cite news |first=Alessandra |last=Stanley |title='Thousand Acres' Wins Fiction As 21 Pulitzer Prizes Are Given |date=[[April 8]], [[1992]] |publisher=New York Times |url=http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/04/05/specials/smiley-pulitzer.html}}</ref>
==Overview==
The book alternates the stories told by Spiegelman's father [[Vladek Spiegelman]] about life in [[Poland]] before and during the [[World War II|Second World War]] with the contemporary life of Art, Vladek and their loved ones in the [[Rego Park]] neighborhood of [[New York City]]. The book recounts the struggle of Vladek Spiegelman living with his family in [[Radomsko]], [[Częstochowa]], [[Sosnowiec]] and [[Bielsko]] in the late 1930s and his tragic odyssey during the war which ultimately led him to [[Auschwitz]] as prisoner 175113.
The book has a [[satirical]] feel about it since the characters are all presented as various types of [[anthropomorphism|anthropomorphic]] animals, according to nationality or race.
Throughout the book, Art Spiegelman confronts his complex and often conflicted relationship with his father. For example, Vladek exhibits [[racism|racial prejudice]] against [[black people|blacks]] despite his own experiences of [[anti-Semitism]]. He is also presented as stingy and a person who makes life very difficult for those around him, including his first wife Anja (Art's mother, who committed suicide) and his second wife Mala, both [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camp]] survivors. The personality of the present day Vladek seems quite different from that of the man in the concentration camps, where he was resourceful and compassionate.
==Themes==
The author's articulation of the Holocaust is the main theme of the two graphic novels, giving the book a metabiographical aspect. Spiegelman often mentions the apprehension he feels in trying to express the inexpressible. The novel depicts the Holocaust through the perspectives of a survivor and of those who did not experience it directly, but are deeply connected to it nonetheless.
==Animals used==
{{quote box2 |width=30em | bgcolor=#ACE1AF |align=right |halign=left |quote=<div style="text-align:left;">Mickey Mouse is the most miserable ideal ever revealed....Healthy emotions tell every independent young man and every honorable youth that the dirty filth-covered vermin, the greatest bacteria carrier in the animal kingdom, cannot be the ideal type of animal....Away with Jewish brutalization of the people! Down with Mickey Mouse! Wear the Swastika Cross!
|source=<div style="text-align:left;">—newspaper article, Pomerania, Germany, mid-1930s<ref name="Maus II copyright"> ''Maus II'' copyright page (ISBN 0-394-55655-0)</ref>
}}
*The [[Jew]]s are represented by [[mouse|mice]].
*The [[Germany|Germans]] are represented by [[cat]]s.
*The [[Poland|Poles]] are represented by [[pig]]s.
*The [[United States|Americans]] are represented by [[dog]]s.
*The [[Roma people|Roma]] (Gypsies) are represented as [[gypsy moth]]s. (found on page 133 of Maus II)
*The [[France|French]] are represented by [[frog]]s.
*The [[Sweden|Swedes]] are represented by [[reindeer]].
*The [[United Kingdom|British]] are represented by [[fish]]. (found on page 131 of Maus II)
*The child of a Jew and a German is shown as a mouse with cat stripes. (found on page 131 of Maus II)
*In the background of page 35 of Maus I, there are [[rabbits]] which are unspecified as a group.
The animals are symbolic of the different nationalities and races for a number of reasons:<ref>, Ian Johnston, [http://www.mala.bc.ca/~Johnstoi/introser/maus.htm On Spiegelman's Maus I and II]</ref>:
*The Jews, as mice, can be seen as weak and helpless victims, as well as [[satire|satirizing]] the Nazi portrayal of Jews as vermin. Also, this may symbolize the resourcefulness many Jews exhibited during the Holocaust and the inability of the Nazis to completely wipe out such a species.
*After the comic was released in Poland many Poles found it very offensive to be represented by [[pig]]s. However, there are many Polish characters who are portrayed sympathetically or positively such as the Spiegelmans' governess or Mrs. Motonowa who hides Vladek and Anja at great personal risk. [[Spiegelman]] explained that he chose [[pig]]s in good faith because of their resemblance to famous American cartoon characters like [[Miss Piggy]] and [[Porky Pig]]. The choice may also reflect the traditional agricultural Polish way of life.<ref>Krzysztof Masłoń, [http://www.forum-znak.org.pl/index-en.php?t=przeglad&id=1020 Goebbels' Tradition in the Comic Book]</ref><ref>[http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/33d/33dTexts/SampleJournalHM+Byrne039.htm Prof. Marcuse, sample journal entries, Laura Byrne, journal entries for UCSB Hist 133D, Fall 2001 "Maus and the “Gray Zone”]</ref>
*The French being frogs would appear to be a direct reference to an oft-used nickname, itself a lampoon of the fact that the French are supposedly renowned for eating frogs: it is also, however, suggested that Spiegelman wanted a certain amount of sliminess about the French, as he says to his (French) wife: "Bunnies are too innocent for the French... Think of the years of [[anti-Semitism]]."
With the exception of the Americans (dogs), the animal characters are all drawn alike. For instance, most of the Jewish mice resemble each other regardless of sex or age. Clothing and other details are used in order to tell them apart: Spiegelman himself, for instance, is always wearing a white shirt and a black sleeveless overshirt; his French wife, [[Françoise Mouly|Françoise]] (herself portrayed as a mouse, because she converted to [[Judaism]]), wears a striped t-shirt. While wandering the streets of their Nazi-occupied town, the Jews wear pig masks in order to show the trouble they went through to pass off as non-Jewish Poles.
The use of animals in the graphic novel may seem incongruous, but instead of creating social stereotypes, Spiegelman attempts to lampoon them and show how stupid it is to classify a human being based on nationality or ethnicity.<ref name="hastingw">Wally Hastings, [http://www.northern.edu/hastingw/maus.htm Art Spiegelman's Maus]</ref> His images are not his: they were "borrowed from the Germans... Ultimately what the book is about is the commonality of human beings. It's crazy to divide things down along nationalistic or racial or religious lines... 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."
The use of animals may also be used in order to detach the reader from real life. This may have been done to appeal to a younger generation of readers, yet still telling a story of survival and death during the holocaust. But instead of fully detaching the reader from the book, he shows a human aspect by illustrating how his father tells his story and by showing the emotions and relationships of the characters throughout.<ref name = "hastingw" />
==Publication==
''Maus'' was originally published as a three-page strip for ''Funny Aminals''([[cq]]),<!--"aminals" is the correct spelling, not a typo--> an underground comic published by Apex Novelties in 1972. In 1977, Spiegelman decided to lengthen the work,<ref>{{cite web | title=Art Spiegelman | format=http | work=Witness & Legacy - Contemporary Art about the holocaust: | url=http://sunsite.utk.edu/witness/artists/spiegelman/ | accessdate=February 14 | accessyear=2006}}</ref> publishing most of the work serially in ''[[RAW (magazine)|RAW]]'' magazine, a publication Spiegelman co-edited along with his wife [[Françoise Mouly]]. It was then published in its final form in two parts (Volume I: "My Father Bleeds History" and Volume II: "And Here My Troubles Began"), before eventually being integrated into a single volume. A [[CD-ROM]] edition also exists.
==Impact==
Since its publication, ''Maus'' has been the subject of numerous essays. Deborah R. Geis published a collection of essays involving ''Maus'' titled ''[[Considering Maus|Considering Maus: Approaches to Art Spiegelman's "Survivor's Tale" of the Holocaust]]'', which received criticism in an [[Image & Narrative]] essay for, among other things, excluding several essays praising and even the rare essay critiquing the graphic novel.<ref>Ole Frahm, [http://www.imageandnarrative.be/issue08/olefrahm_geis.htm Review of Considering MAUS]</ref>
[[Alan Moore]] praised ''Maus'' in a recommendations list for the website http://www.readyourselfraw.com, saying "I have been convinced that Art Spiegelman is perhaps the single most important comic creator working within the field and in my opinion Maus represents his most accomplished work to date…"<ref>[http://www.readyourselfraw.com/recommended/rec_alanmoore/recommended_alanmoore.html RAW: "recommended by Alan Moore"]</ref>
''Maus'' has also been studied in schools.<ref>[http://www.buckslib.org/OneBook/Maus/unit2student.htm Teaching Resources for Art Spiegelman's Maus: A Survivor's Tale]</ref> It is used both in courses dedicated to the study of modern English literature and Jewish culture.
==Awards and nominations==
===Awards===
*1988 [[Angoulême International Comics Festival|Angoulême International Comics Festival Awards]] - [[Angoulême International Comics Festival Religious award|Religious Award]]: Christian Testimony & [[Angoulême International Comics Festival Prize for Best Comic Book|Prize for Best Comic Book]]: Foreign Comic Award (''Maus: un survivant raconte'').
*1988 [[Urhunden Prizes|Urhunden Prize]] - Foreign Album (''Maus'').
*1990 [[Max & Moritz Prizes]] - Special Prize (''Maus'').
*1992 [[Pulitzer Prize]] - Special Awards and Citations - Letters (''Maus''). [http://www.pulitzer.org/]
*1992 [[Eisner Award]] - Best Graphic Album: Reprint (''[[Maus II]]'').
*1992 [[Harvey Award]] - Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work (''Maus II''). [http://www.harveyawards.org/awards_1992win.html]
*1993 ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' Book Prize for Fiction (''Maus II, A Survivor's Tale''). [http://home.comcast.net/~netaylor1/latimesfiction.html]
*1993 Angoulême International Comics Festival Awards - Prize for Best Comic Book: Foreign comic (''Maus: un survivant raconte, part II'').
*1993 Urhunden Prize - Foreign Album (''Maus II'').
===Nominations===
*1986 [[National Book Critics Circle Award]]
*1992 National Book Critics Circle Award
==Editions==
* ISBN 0-394-74723-2, Volume One (paperback)
* ISBN 0-394-54155-3, Volume One (hardcover)
* ISBN 0-679-72977-1, Volume Two (paperback)
* ISBN 0-394-55655-0, Volume Two (hardcover)
* ISBN 0-679-41038-4, Hardcover set (both volumes in two books)
* ISBN 0-679-74840-7, Paperback boxed set
* ISBN 0-14-101408-3, Paperback containing both volumes in one book
* ISBN 0-679-40641-7, Hardcover containing both volumes in one book
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
==References==
*{{cite web | title=Art Spiegelman | format=http | work=Witness & Legacy - Contemporary Art about the Holocaust: | url=http://sunsite.utk.edu/witness/artists/spiegelman/ | accessdate=February 14 | accessyear=2006}}
*{{cite web | author=Allen, Sara | title=MAUS: A Narrative History of Family and Tragedy | year=1997 | format=http | url=http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/bassr/218/projects/allen/maussea1.htm | accessdate=July 27 | accessyear=2006}}
*{{cite web | author=Feinstein, Stephen C. | title=Witness and Legacy | format=http | work=Witness & Legacy - Contemporary Art about the Holocaust: | url=http://sunsite.utk.edu/neighborhoods/witness/essays/feinstein/feinstein.html | accessdate=February 14 | accessyear=2006}}
*{{cite web | author=McQuade, Donald | year=2003 | title=Embodying Identity | format=pdf | work=Seeing & Writing 2 | url=http://bedfordstmartins.com/seeingandwriting2e/instructor/pdfs/mcquade_ch04.pdf | accessdate=February 14 |accessyear=2006}}
*{{cite web | author=Masłoń, Krzysztof | title=Goebbels' Tradition in the Comic Book | format=http | url=http://www.forum-znak.org.pl/index-en.php?t=przeglad&id=1020 | accessdate=February 14 | accessyear=2006}}
*{{cite web | year=1996 | title=Maus | format=http | work=National Museum of American Jewish History | url=http://www.nmajh.org/exhibitions/maus/maus2.html | accessdate=February 14 | accessyear=2006}}
*{{cite web | author=Dooley, Michael | year=2005 | title=The Unsinkable Denis Kitchen | format=http | work=AIGA Journal of Design | url=http://journal.aiga.org/content.cfm?ContentAlias=_getfullarticle&aid=1239039 | accessdate=February 14 | accessyear=2006}}
==External links==
{{Spoken Wikipedia|Maus.ogg|2005-06-23}}
*[http://www.randomhouse.com/highschool/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780394747231&view=tg Teacher's guide] at [[Random House]]
*[http://kitoba.com/pedia/Reconstructivist+Art.html#maus Reconstructivist Art]: Maus
*[http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/33d/33dTexts/maus/MausResources.htm Questions and Resources for Art Spiegelman's Maus] college study guide with archived articles
*[http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/holocaust/spiegelman.html Art Spiegelman's MAUS: Working Through the Trauma of the Holocaust]. In ''Responses to the Holocaust'', U. Virginia
*[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2278/is_n3_v20/ai_18298424/pg_1 The Shoah goes on and on: remembrance and representation in Art Spiegelman's 'Maus.']
[[Category:Comic book titles]]
[[Category:Autobiographical graphic novels]]
[[Category:Holocaust literature]]
[[Category:Jewish Polish history]]
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[[ca:Maus]]
[[de:Maus – Die Geschichte eines Überlebenden]]
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