Maus: A Survivor's Tale - Art Spiegelman
The graphic novel Maus: A Survivor's Tale surrounds a father's struggle to survive in Auschwitz during World War II. It is written from the perspective of his son and details not only his father's attempt to avoid capture and discovery, but also the horrific conditions inside the concentration camp. Spiegelman gains this information by conducting interviews with his father in 1978, which is where the novel starts. One of the primary reasons that Spiegelman begins to write a novel that addresses one of the most horrific historical events of the 20th Century is that he believed one of the only ways to connect with his father was through the past and his memories of the Holocaust. By discussing an event as massive as the Holocaust, Spiegelman drew scholarly attention to graphic novels as a medium and Maus is seen as a pioneering piece of literature. This was seen as a pivotal moment and led it to be the first graphic novel to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1992.
Maus: A Survivor's Tale as a graphic novel fits into the theme of transnationalism and cross-cultralism due to the trans-boundary nature of the narrative. The story is being written in New York but constantly flashbacks to Poland during World War II. The only ways that these places are linked are through the people and the memories that they hold. This link is further highlighted on page 166 (see picture below left) where a map of New York overlays a map of Auschwitz. Additionally the back cover (seen below right) shows the whole of Poland and the location of the death camps with an insert of a map of Rego Park, New York where Spiegelman lived whilst creating the novel. By contrasting these two images the author is shown a mixture of the past and present and how both him and his father view them separately as home. Thereby it is not just the past and present but it also represents father and son and how it is this horrific story that brings them together.
Finally, one of the most obscure things about Maus: A Survivor's Tale is the representation of humans as animals. As The Times says:
"Spiegelman portrays the Nazis as cats, the Jews as mice, the Poles as pigs and the Americans as dogs. They are all terrifyingly human"
However, the idea of transnationalism poses an issue to this representation. If people consider
themselves to belong to multiple nationalities what animal do you portray them
as? A key example of this is on page 171 (see below) where author is trying to work out how to portray his wife, as she is French. On a sketched page we can see his multiple attempts with images of a moose, poodle, frog, rabbit or mouse like himself. It is decided that she is portrayed as a mouse as she has converted to Judaism yet it brings up this problem of how people identify themselves. The same can be said for how he presents himself – he is an American and has never lived in Poland yet he chooses to portray himself as a mouse. This can be seen as a way for the author to not only connect with his father but also to try and put himself in the same position as those who experienced the horrors of Auschwitz. Thereby an individual can choose their own cultural identity depending on whether or not they are transnational.
Spiegelman, Art. (2003). Maus: A Survivor's Tale. Penguin. Page 171
Henceforth, it is evident that the story Spiegelman is telling is transnational in its nature. The plot takes place in both America and multiple locations of Poland and essentially it revolves around classification. Transnationalism changes how you classify yourself in terms of culture yet when what race you belong to means life of death it can change things dramatically.
References:
- Spiegelman, Art. (2003). Maus: A Survivor's Tale. Penguin.