Thomas Johanesson

Dr. Irma Maini

Capstone Symposium
4/15/15
Art Spiegelmans Maus: A Postmodern EthnoGraphic Memoir
Art Spiegelmans Maus is a literary work that chronicles Spiegelmans turbulent
relationship with his father Vladek, while trying to piece together Vladeks personal
struggle through the Holocaust during World War II. The Holocaust was an effort by
Adolf Hitler and his Third Reich to eradicate what Hitler called a race-tuberculosis of
the peoples. By 1933, when the Third Reich rose to power, Germany became a country
in which citizens had no guaranteed basic rights (USHMM). This postmodern, nonfiction historical narrative progresses through the medium of graphic narrative by way
of intersecting genres, ethnography and memoir. Spiegelman created both volumes of
Maus through Vladeks narrative before World War 2 and during the Holocaust. He
does this while reconstructing his own experience of interviewing Vladek and
reconstructing Vladeks story. Using postmodern techniques, Spiegelmans efforts of
storytelling through the visual medium of a graphic narrative with the intersecting
genres of memoir and ethnography primarily have challenged pre-existing ideas about
genre categorization, as well as literary value.
Spiegelman, the artist, explores his fathers Holocaust testimony through the
medium of comics. As Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics: The Invisible
Art, explains, Comics were those bright, colorful magazines with bad art, stupid stories,
and guys in tights (2). This idea that comics are not a literary art form and do not have
literary value stems from this common misconception. Maus, however is often identified

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as a graphic [narrative] (Martin) or graphic novel, which is defined as a narrative told in
comics that is long and bound as a book. McCloud and Elaine Martin trace the history of
the graphic novel to Egyptian hieroglyphics, given their structure as sequential drawings
with corresponding words to tell a story (McCloud 14 & Martin 170). The images are tied
together with words to show a moving, flowing story that progresses with each panel.
The way the gutters of the medium are used by Spiegelman further makes this text so
accessible to all people by allowing a broader interpretation of what happens between
these changing images. For example in Maus volume one, the scene of the present day
frame narrative where Art, the author represented as a character, interviews his father
Vladek are set back into the page, while the panels representing Vladeks past appear to
be pasted over this frame narrative (1:14). This represents the visual reconstruction of
the work that most demonstrates that this work is a reconstruction of what has
happened. The popular misconception of comics as a non-serious medium is why some
may not see Maus as literature. Spiegelmans use of this medium for a serious topic like
the Holocaust was indeed daring yet the medium of comics/graphic narrative provided
him with a unique opportunity. Spiegelman uses Maus express the unrepresentable pain
of trauma and the aftershocks of that trauma. As Elmwood points out, Spiegelman
benefited from his use of "the medium in such a way that official, historical accounts of
the Holocaust [were] brought into conversation with individual, private accounts of its
survivors (Elmwood 692). Hathaway further asserts Elmwoods idea by commenting on
the way that Vladeks voice and narrative dominates the text. [O]nly through Vladeks
story that the reader comes to understand the magnitude of the larger historical events
being described in miniature (Hathaway 250). This is further explored through
postmodern techniques which makes us conscious that this story is being told to us by

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someone who did not live the experience, but is being told about it through interviews
(Hathaway 252). We see the writer as a character considering how to represent the
characters. We see the way the metaphor falls apart in volume 2. We see the way that
Being cognizant of these this element make While some comics may focus on the
depicted conflicts of superheroes in tights, Maus as a comic focuses on telling the story
of the tragically extraordinary circumstances of survivors of the Holocaust. Comics are
recognized a medium, which makes genre an entirely different matter.
Another problematic of Maus being considered literature is its taxonomy, for
Rosemary Hathaway affirms Maus exists in a space between genres (252). It could be
a comic book, a biography, or a historical narrative. Initially, Maus II was listed as a
New York Times bestseller under Fiction and this lead to Spiegelman responding with a
letter titled A Problem of Taxonomy in which he acknowledged that by [representing]
people with animal heads Ive raised problems of taxonomy for you. The New York
Times responded by publishing the officially listing for Maus from Pantheon Books as
Comic books, strips, ect[,] Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Poland Biography[,]
Holocaust survivors United States Biography and then re-listing the book as a nonfiction bestseller. As Spiegelman writes, Maus is a carefully researched work based
closely on my father's memories of life in Hitler's Europe and in the death camps[.]
While Spiegelman has a point that the work is carefully researched, it is not just a
biography. Dr. Edi Giunta defines biography and autobiography as a sequence of
extraordinary facts that happen to an extraordinary person. Maus has a much more
complex taxonomy than historical comic book biography because it is not as
straightforward, nor as simple. While Spiegelman may consider Maus to be like all

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other narrative work[,] streamlined and, at least on that level, a fiction, (MetaMaus
115) this gives critics an idea of what genre it is.
There is a postmodernism to the construction of Maus. Spiegelman co-opts the
visual sense of the reader by making the reader lean into the text. It is not simple to keep
track of the Spiegelman family being represented as mice. In my own reading, I had to
make a very conscious effort during the dinner scene in figuring out who was whom
(Spiegelman 1:74). This is not a mindless medium where information is absorbed
passively, but a serious text in which the blending similarities of the black and white
colors are disarming. Additionally, Art Spiegelman is represented as a character in
Maus its possible that Maus is a memoir rather than simply a biography. Indeed,
Spiegelmans representation as Art, the character, is where the genres most closely
intersect. Art, the character, acts throughout the narrative as chronicler (Elmwood
694) who is tasked with the challenge of representing things accurately (Hathaway 256)
and also someone that is dealing with their transference of the previous generations
Holocaust trauma (Berger). These two things cause the work to fall into two distinct
genres-- that of ethnography and that of memoir. One would be hard-pressed to find a
text that more clearly shows us the intentionality of its construction than Maus[.] It is
made very clear to the reader that the entire work has been very carefully reconstructed
sequence of events told in the form of a story (Hathaway 252). Art is depicted as a
character considering the representation of his father and worrying about confirming
preexisting stereotypes (256). This is also key in the surface metaphor of representing
Jews as mice. Furthermore, given that this work deals with reconstruction and the
inexactness of memory, Maus fits into the category of memoir because of how it
explores memory. Unlike autobiography, which moves in a dutiful line from birth to

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fame, memoir narrows the lens, focusing on a time in the writers life that was unusually
vivid [...] that was framed by war or [...] some other special circumstance (Zinsser &
Baker). The special circumstance found in Maus is Vladeks tale of survival and Arts
relationship with him. Furthermore, memoir extends beyond the achievements and
events of ones life, but how the individual interacted with these events. We see what
that person lived as they saw it, rather than simply from the perspective of people
looking back at the past Spiegelman presents it to us through Vladeks eyes (Hathaway
250). On the other hand, ethnography is a look inside a culture to represent the
unrepresentable writes Hathaway, quoting Charles Hatfield (251). The interaction of
Art acting as the Spiegelman familys scribe to gather the history, process it, and then
reconstruct it is what is key in making this an ethnographic narrative (Hathaway 251).
This leads to the idea that this work could be both an ethnography and a memoir
because of how the story itself is presented to an audience of readers. The story utilizes
the elements of memoir by how Vladek interacted with history in the making and the
personal take he had on the events he lived through. Additionally, the genre of
ethnography is utilized to explore being a Jew during the time of the Holocaust. The key
technique utilized from ethnography is where Art, the character representation of the
author goes to the scene of investigation and representing that in his work (Hathaway
254). Ethnography is all about showing the work of the researcher by way of authorship
and this further feeds into the need to question how accurately everyone is being
portrayed. Given that the literature uses a graphic medium, this intersection between
genres through medium could be stylized as postmodern EthnoGraphic Memoir. These
genres work together to achieve a larger impact.

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Through this compound genre and medium of postmodern EthnoGraphic
Memoir, Spiegelman uses three different levels of narration to tell his story. Alan Berger
details these levels as inner, middle, and outer. The inner level is Vladeks Holocaust
experience which reveals him as a resourceful individual (Berger). For example, in the
second volume of Maus Vladek is shown using English to communicate with a French
prisoner, who gives Vladek food and who helps him survive the camps. Vladek credits
this French prisoner for his survival, but in actuality it is Vladeks use of basic English
that enables the exchange to happen (Spiegelman 2:93). It is reconstructed through
Vladek telling the story to Art, who are both represented as a characters that frame this
story. The significance of this layer is its visual representation of historical events
through the lens of the individual and his community. The middle level are the scenes
of Vladeks testimony to the horrors of the Holocaust. Berger specifically looks to the
moment where the three Jewish store owners are hanged to death. Spiegelman shows
Vladek crying (1:84) to emphasize the horror of how the Nazis left these people hanging
in the town square for a week for dealing goods without coupons (Spiegelman 1:83).
This layer is significant in its function in how it narrows the narrative focus to Vladeks
story specifically, rather than the larger community response. The final, outer layer is
memory and representation, or the surface layer. At the surface of the work is where
we see the way characters are depicted. This is made most clear by the entire
construction of the work and this comes through overtly at the visual level where Jews
are represented as mice.
The representation of Jews as mice and Germans as cats is an apt visual
metaphor of the genocidal relationship between these two people during the Holocaust.
[E]veryone knows what cats do to mice (Berger). While scholars like Hillel Halkin

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have commented on Spiegelmans animal metaphor of Jews as Mice and Nazis as Cats to
be dehumanizing, other scholars like Geoffrey Hartman applaud the use of animal
imagery. (qtd. in Berger). Spiegelman effectively appropriates Nazi propaganda by
representing Jews as Mice in comic book form (MetaMaus 115-116 & Josyph). In
MetaMaus, Spiegelman addresses the use of the metaphor by saying that Hitler was his
biggest collaborator. In the chapter Why Mice? there are three examples of antisemitic propaganda. First theres a poster for the documentary for The Eternal Jew a
sinister mans face with a star of David on the forehead is shown sneering at the viewer.
Its unlikely that this is a flattering depiction of Jewish people based on the dark shading
in his face. He looks like Satan (115). Secondly, there is a childrens book called The
Poisonous Mushroom showing a personified mushroom grimacing with a star of David
on its stem. Given that the subject of the book is clearly a metaphorical Jewish
mushroom that is poisonous, this further reinforces the negative aspects of the Jewish
people. Finally, a poster depicting a rat with exaggerated features of a large nose, reads
Rats, Destroy Them. The implication is to conflate Jews with vermin. Additionally,
another poster with rats, who each have the star of David on their back, are depicted as
feasting upon a sack of food labeled Property of the People-- Not for Jews! The image
of Jewish people as vermin is clear (117). It is clear that Spiegelman is reappropriating
the the negative stereotype of this propaganda and using it to the end of expressing this
work in a way that is more accessible to readers. Indeed, this taking back of a negative
depiction of Jewish people is meant to demonstrate how Jewish people were demonized
under Nazi reign. While this visual representation of social attitudes functions with
immediacy, it is not foolproof. This is clearest when the reconstructed representation
collapses when a prisoner, who is drawn initially as a mouse, approaches a German

Johanesson 8
soldier, who is drawn as a cat claiming, and the former is claims to be German. This
causes Spiegelman to ask Vladek to verify this, but Vladek responds Who knows...It
was German prisoners as well...but for the Germans this guy was Jewish! Ultimately,
Spiegelman represents this character in both cat form and mouse form in two panels
side by side (Spiegelman 2:50). This instance where the metaphor collapses shows most
clearly what Hathaway refers to as the postmodern question of representation. [Is it]
possible for anyone to portray another accurately (Hathaway 252)? Spiegelman even
reflects on how to depict his fiance, who converted from a non-Jewish religion to
Judaism. Should she be a frog because she is French, or should she be a mouse because
she has converted religions? He ultimately depicts her as a mouse because she has
converted. These three layers of narration function together with the reconstructed
nature of Maus. Combined with the medium of graphic narrative, Maus is
taxonomically a postmodern EthnoGraphic Memoir.
Maus has been translated into dozens of languages and published in various
countries and these translations of the work have lead to their share of controversy.
Initially, Maus was received incredibly well by critics in the U. S. Even in 2011,
Spiegelman has commented Maus has entered the culture in ways that I could have
never predicted. It is considered one of the big three graphic narratives of the 1980s in
the United States (Gopinath). While the Jews as Mice metaphor was taken well in the
United States, the representation of Polish people as Pigs was not taken well in Poland.
Despite Spiegelman representing the Polish people as pigs to emphasize the Nazi
mentality that these people should be worked to death the metaphor was poorly
received. In 2001, a Polish publishing house translated and began distributing Maus. In
response a group of Polish people holding placards and burning the book arrived at

Johanesson 9
the publishing houses doors to protest this unflattering depiction (MetaMaus 122-123).
This is the same level where readers see Art, the character, consider the reconstruction
of Maus in the piece. A libel lawsuit was lodged against Spiegelman by a surviving
Spiegelman relative who lives in Israel. The surviving relative asserted that the actual
person Pesach Spiegelman who was represented in Maus was not part of the Jewish
police during the Holocaust and that was defaming his memory, so Spiegelman changed
Pesachs hat from a Jewish police hat to a fedora for the Israeli publication (MetaMaus
154). Additionally the editor of Rowohlt publishing, Maus German publishing house,
had to get permission from the German government for German publication to keep the
swastika on the cover of Maus volume 1. It is against German law to display a swastika
on anything except serious scholarly research (Graphic Novel) and given Spiegelman
had done field research, Spiegelman and Rowohlt publishing were allowed to keep the
swastika on the cover (MetaMaus 155, 159). This lends itself to the idea that Germany
recognizes Maus as a work of historical value and it is worth noting that the editor of
Rowohlt publishing went on to become the minister of culture. These are some of the
larger conflicts Maus has had with censorship in international translations,
publications, and distributions of Art Spiegelmans Maus when it was initially
published. The controversy of Spiegelman showing the swastika on the cover of Maus
was reopened in Moscow, Russia this past month, April 2015. Vladimir Putins
administration put out an order to remove all Nazi propaganda from Moscow for the
political holiday, Victory Day, which celebrates the Russian defeat of the Nazis on the
eastern front (Roth). [T]he swastika there is just a caricature, says the Chief Editor of
Maus Russian publication house, It does not fall afoul of the law banning fascist
symbols (qtd. in Roth). There is no Nazi propaganda in it. This is a book that should

Johanesson 10
be on the shelves on Victory Day (qtd. in Gambino). Spiegelman himself is quoted as
saying I dont think Maus was the intended target for this, obviously, but I think [the
law] had an intentional effect of squelching freedom of expression in Russia. [...] A tip of
the hat to Victory Day and a middle finger for trying to squelch expression (Gambino).
Additionally, Spiegelman said in an interview on NPRs All Things Considered as saying
that this kind of censorship is, Well intentioned stupidity. He further asserted that
these arbitrary laws are an abuse of the red line of censorship. The cover is key in being
part of the presentation of Maus, especially given that Spiegelman is the artist (Graphic
Novel). While Spiegelmans Maus may have its share of controversy, it has also
received literary praise and recognition.
Maus has received some recognition and a few awards. Both volumes of Maus
have been nominated respectively in 1986 and 1992 for the National Book Critics Circle
Award. Spiegelmans work has been honored at the Angoulme International Comics
Festival Awards and was awarded Best Comic Book for Foreign Comic in both 1988 and
1993. Additionally, both volumes received the Religious Award for Christian Testimony.
In 1992, the second volume received a special Pulitzer prize (Berger). While these
awards do not define the inherent literary value of Spiegelmans work, it is clear that if
there is anything that is so subjective in terms of excellence it is literature. As Daniel
Mendelsohn says, We cant agree on anything. [...] Excellence in literature is subjective
in readers[.] Spiegelmans work has been anthologized in Volume E of The Heath
Anthology of American Literature, which further raises the question of literary value as
it has not been included in the Norton Anthology.
The question of literary value is ultimately reflected in the recent opening of the
U. S. literary canon in the 1970s. There has also been conflict with canon conservatives

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who want to keep the U. S. literary canon closed, particularly around the liberal push to
open the U. S. literary canon (Guilory 235). Where the conservative Nortons Anthology
keeps the canon representationally closed, The Heath Anthology of American
Literature is the most clear liberal effort to representationally open the canon. This
conflict ultimately happened when the editions of The Heath Anthology that were
published in the 1990s included women and people of color in the section on the
nineteenth-century, where they were not represented in the Norton Anthology (Cain 7).
Considering the inclusion of Maus in the 7th edition of The Heath Anthology, it is clear
that there is an affirmation of literary value in a liberal audience of the U. S. literary
canon. It is important [...] to acknowledge the degree of difference that already inhabits
(and always has inhabited) literary studies [...] that animate and define the field (Cain
11). As Bona & Maini assert through Lauters working definition of the literary canon,
considerations for what to include in the canon are key in their historical context. This
definition enables teachers to run ethnic and womens studies courses (8), so does it
enable the consideration for the broadening of the canon. Given the vast historical basis
of Maus, the postmodern techniques, the intersection of two genres, and the use of an
unusual medium this is a perfect piece for a liberal canon. The innovation of a genre that
is typically considered kids stuff (McCloud 2) deserves recognition for the massive
effort made by the author to bring forth graphic novels as a serious literary art form. As
a side effect of Spiegelmans effort, comic books have become teachable material in
public schools.
Comic books have additionally been recognized as having value from the
perspective of teaching literacy in ESL students. In being able to better teach students
of both first-, and second-,[and] additional-language learners (Ranker 296) through

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media reading lessons (Ranker 299). Additionally, the book has been used to
communicate identity narratives of immigrant middle school ESL students in western
Florida (Danzak 187). To conceptualize the pedagogy of what Danzak calls
multiliteracies is to recognize the expanding modes of communication and to
recognize the growing importance of cultural and linguistic diversity in our
communities. This literacy pedagogy is in opposition with the page-bound practice
restricted to [...] monolingual and monocultural [literacy] (Danzak 189). This pedagogy
is much along the lines of the described mission of The Heath Anthology: In presenting
a more inclusive canon of American literature the anthology continues to balance the
traditional, leading names in American literature with lesser-known writers (The
Heath Anthology). A selection of Maus volume 2 was included in the 7th edition of The
Heath Anthology. The pedagogy of multiliteracies represents the fruits of the efforts to
open the U. S. literary canon, by showing that there are benefits to expanding and
opening the U. S. canon. This shows some recognized literary value through a
pedagogical standpoint by an audience which welcomes this graphic novel as literature
beyond a literary setting, which further affirms the value of Maus by demonstrating
teachability in regards to language, not only through reading but through creating a
narrative.
In closing, Maus is a postmodern representation of the individual struggles of
Vladek Spiegelman during the cataclysmic Holocaust through the medium of graphic
narrative and the genres ethnography and memoir. The inexactness of Vladeks memory
expressed through Art Spiegelmans reconstruction of personal events in the context of
historical events is an effort worthy of the US literary canon despite it unusual medium
and intersecting genres. This ultimately calls attention to the intentional reconstruction

Johanesson 13
of Maus as a literary work streamlined by a researching author-illustrator, rather than
by the narrator who directly lived the pain of the Holocaust. Furthermore, despite the
initial controversy in Germany, Maus has been recognized as a serious scholarly work
(Graphic Novel). The volumes of this work have been honored both internationally
and domestically, as well as being featured in a liberal anthology of American works,
thus acknowledging the literary value of this work. Personally, I must stand by Maus
inclusion given the way it represents the unrepresentable pain of the previous
generation through an unusual medium. Furthermore as a teacher in training, I have to
stand by the use of multiliteracies to accomplish the goal of inclusive pedagogy,
particularly because some teachers work with populations that house incredible
diversity.

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Works Cited
Berger, Alan L. "Maus I and II." In Cronin, Gloria L., and Alan L. Berger, eds.
Encyclopedia of Jewish-American Literature. New York, 2009. Bloom's
Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 27 Feb. 2015.
Bona, Mary Jo & Irma Maini. "Multiethnic Literature in the Millenium."
Multiethnic Literature and Canon Debates. Ed. Mary Jo. Bona and Irma Maini.
Albany: State U of New York, 2006. Print.
Cain, William E. "Opening the American Mind." Ed. Jan Gorak. Canon Vs.
Culture. 2001: 3-15. Print.
Danzak, Robin L. "Defining Identities Through Multiliteracies: EL Teens Narrate
Their Immigration Experiences As Graphic Stories." Journal Of Adolescent &
Adult Literacy 55.3 (2011): 187-196. Academic Search Premier. Web. 11 May
2015.
Elmwood, Victoria A. "Happy, Happy Ever After": The Transformation Of Trauma
Between The Generations In Art Spiegelman's Maus: A Survivor's Tale."
Gambino, Lauren. "Art Spiegelman Warns of 'dangerous' Outcome as Russian
Shops Ban Maus." The Guardian. 28 Apr. 2015. Web. 28 Apr. 2015.
Gopinath, Manu. "About Art Spiegelman." Reception and Reviews of the Work
Part I. 11 Dec. 2011. Web. 11 May 2015.
Graphic Novel About Holocaust 'Maus' Banned In Russia For Its Cover. Narr. Robert
Siegel. NPR. WNYC, New York. 28 Apr. 2015. Radio.
Guillory, John. "Canon." Critical Terms for Literary Study. Chicago: U of Chicago, 1990.
Print.

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Hathaway, Rosemary V. "Reading Art Spiegelman's "Maus" As Postmodern
Ethnography." Journal Of Folklore Research 48.3 (2011): 249-267. Literary
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Josyph, Peter. "Maus I and II." In Werlock, Abby H. P., ed. The Facts On File
Companion to the American Novel. New York, 2006. Bloom's Literature. Facts
On File, Inc. Web. 27 Feb. 2015
Martin, Elaine. "Graphic Novels Or Novel Graphics?." Comparatist 35.(2011):
170-181. Literary Reference Center. Web. 27 Feb. 2015.
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York:
HarperPerennial, 1994. Print.
Mendelsohn, Daniel, and Jennifer Szalai. "Whom or What Are Literary Prizes
For?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 23 Nov. 2013. Web. 20 Mar.
2015.
Ranker, Jason. "Using Comic Books As Read-Alouds: Insights On Reading
Instruction From An English As A Second Language Classroom." Reading
Teacher 61.4 (2007): 296-305. Academic Search Premier. Web. 11 May 2015.
Roth, Andrew. "The New York Times." 'Maus' Book About Holocaust Is Removed
in Russia. 27 Apr. 2015. Web. 28 Apr. 2015.
Spiegelman, Art. "A Problem of Taxonomy." The New York Times. The New York
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Spiegelman, Art. Maus: A Survivor's Tale. Vol. 1. New York: Pantheon, 1986.
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Spiegelman, Art. Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began. Vol. 2. New York:
Pantheon, 1991. Print.

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Spiegelman, Art. MetaMaus. New York: Pantheon, 2011. Print.
"The Heath Anthology of American Literature; Volume E, 7th Edition." Higher
Education Learning Solutions. Cengage Learning, 2014. Web. 11 May 2015.
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