Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography



Cavna, Michael. 'MetaMaus': 'MAUS' creator Art Spiegelman reveals emotional journey to today's 25th-anniversary book. 2011.<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/metamaus-maus-creator-art-spiegelman-reveals-emotional-journey-to-todays-25th-anniversary-book/2011/10/03/gIQARhyIKL_blog.html>
      This article tracks the journey of the Maus Series. From the three page underground comix in 1972, Maus I, Maus II and to winning the Pulitzer Prize. There will never be a 'Maus 3.' Also includes photo of Art taken by his daughter.



Comic creator Lamblek. Art Spiegelman. 2012.<http://www.lambiek.net/artists/s/spiegelman.htm>
      This site is present visuals for some of his famous Art works. Dates to the Grand Prix in 2011. Site also gives detail about Spiegelman's own comix magazine Raw.



Directors Club. Art Spiegelman. 2006.<http://www.adcglobal.org/archive/hof/2006/?id=302>
      This site gives some useful information about Art Spiegelman's recent life. Hall of Fame up to year 2006. Also include a photo of Art.



GradeSaver. Biography of Art Spiegelman. 2012. <http://www.gradesaver.com/author/art-spiegelman/>
      The site gives a brief biography of Art Spiegelman. From his date of birth to year 1995 when he received honorary doctorate from Binghamton University in 1995.



Marcuse, Harold. Introduction about Maus. 2012. <http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/33d/33dTexts/maus/MausResources.htm>
      This site details the Timeline of Events in Maus and Art Spiegelman's Life.



ReligionFacts. The Swastika Symbol in Hinduism. 2012. <http://www.religionfacts.com/hinduism/symbols/swastika.htm>
      The article gives a brief explanation to the Swastika symbol. Also presents symbol images used in hinduism.



The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. Art Spiegelman. 2012 <http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Spiegelman.html>
      This site is a brief biography of Art Spiegelman detailing towards his adult life.

Symbolism in Maus

What's So Special About Art Spiegelman's MAUS and "Crossroads"?

The video explains one of the symbolism in the book Maus -- Swastika and crossroad. The crossroad which Art's parents step on is the sign used by Hitler, which suggests that they cannot escape the nazie's plan no matter which road they pick.

(125) Maus I

It's interesting because the Swastika is recognized as a derivative from the Hindu symbol. The symbol is used as a charm to bring good fortune. The Nazis adopted the sign for its indication of racial purity and superiority.

Swastika banner being hung for an Indian wedding, Mumbai.

BY: Sisi Xu

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ReligionFacts. The Swastika Symbol in Hinduism. 2012
<http://www.religionfacts.com/hinduism/symbols/swastika.htm>

Book Analysis

Abstract: Maus is the award winning piece of American comic artist Art Spiegelman. This paper discusses the style and methods used in the Postmodernism(1) Graphic memoir Maus I and analyzes its significance, purpose and theme.

Maus depicts the tragic past event man endured in Holocaust and the present difficult relationship between father and son. Maus was classified as both fiction and nonfiction, due to its unique content. Postmodernists concentrate on experience and relative truth. History is not just truths, but also understanding of the mind constructed into reality. Through the techniques used in postmodernism literature, Maus I united reality and interpretation, past and present, and successfully developed a remarkable story that narrates a true historical event.

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The structured storytelling makes every narration genuinely real. The storyline often shifts between past and present time delivering a true historical in several steps. Told by Vladek, through Art's understanding and stylized on paper, then interpreted by the reader.

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Remind - (47)

Memories of Vladek is at times vaguely remembered. (47,82) This is justified from the frequent reminder from Art, asking for orderly event occurrence. As a descendant of survivor from Holocaust, Art never experienced the incident. Finding evidence became Art's habit. (93,105) He tried to find mother's diary and hopes to gather information from mom to better complete the story.

Chronological Order - (82)

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Diary- (93) 

Diary - (105)

Need Diary - (158)

He urged to find mom's diary wanting to fill the time gaps, only to find a destroyed diary. (158)Time gaps also shows loss of information. Unfortunately, there is no more evidence to support Vladek's memory, which creates uncertainty believing the story. Art implies in his story that Memory, Narration, and Illustration speaks no absolute truth, but rather representations of the reality.

Burned Diary - (159)

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84

39

The use of distortion diminishes the presence of reality, permitting freedom of interpretation. The doctor said that Vladek's glass eye was in perfect condition(39). When he recalled the memories of those hanged Jews, Vladek was so sad his eyes teared(84).

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How can an eye made out of glass be in perfect condition or even cry out tears? Perhaps, the existence of a real glass eye is to be questioned. However, through the understanding of metaphor, this can be understood as implying the horrific event of Holocaust. Regardless of the truth, the history makes people cry. The use of metaphor distorts the presence of reality and bring out the feelings beyond image and words.

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99

Another case is the combination of existence in the human world to story world.(99-100) The presentation of Art's earlier comic work embedded in the story reveals unspoken facts. Characters within the comics are human narrating the death of Art's mother Anja. (104)No one questioned the difference in races, which suggests the mouses in MAUS are indeed human. The subtle blending directs the reader to imagine a true story.

100

104

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46

Maus is like a carefully staged play that visualizes despair, betrayal and such actions reveals the human nature. Starting with Vladek family's attempt to avoid enrolling the army.(46) This might appear like a family caring situation, but placing their own safety prior to the nations is rather a selfish behaviour. Vladek was safe alright, but also extremely sick. At the time of war, allies should remain strong as a team.

47

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113

The Vladek's family was discovered when hiding in the attic. (113) The family shared their food after realizing the thief was their own kind. Unfortunately, the intruder gave the hiding spot to Nazis. Exposing the location is inappropriate, but revealing after accepting the food becomes betrayal. Never mind about intruding to steal in the first place, everyone had a hard time, surviving was the most significant.

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23

Characterization played a crucial role enhancing the story. Character interactions and behaviours aid to define their personality. (23)

24

The memory Vladek recalled of Lucia, uncovers some humane act, imperfection. The Conversation also showed Art's interest in discovering details. He promised to keep the chat private yet chose to reveal in comic. This also strengthens his keen to preserve the story as real as possible. The imperfect characters grants diverse and engaging personality.

Prologue begins with child Art crying to papa waiting for comfort and quickly cuts to "I hadn't seen him in a long Time - we weren't that close." (5,11)This raise the curiosity about father and son relationship and keeps the interest.

5

11

Art does not have a close relationship with his father; perhaps Art does not appreciate him at all. (69)Art is frustrated when his coat is thrown away without permission, but Vladek pulled out another coat for Art and he showed no appreciation. Despite the bad choices, Vladek did care about Art.

69

69

159

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At the end, Art turned away and whispered "Murderer." (159)This might explain Art's constant frustration towards Vladek because he is highly opinionated. Though the reason is still unknown, but could it be the case where Vladek killed someone? We do not know.

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Scene of Interest - the Battlefields


As a German solider, Vladek was scolded for having a cold gun, but when discovered by the Nazis he was in trouble because its hot. Ironic scene - there is more than one side to everything.

48 

49

50


By: Sisi Xu



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Term:
(1)Postmodernism: Postmodernism relies on concrete experience over abstract principles, arguing that the outcome of one's own experience will necessarily be fallible and relative, rather than certain or universal.

Maus Story Timeline

Maus: A Survivor's Tale



1906, October 11: Vladek Spiegelman born

1912, March 15: Anja Zylberberg born

1927: Vladek starts his first service in the Polish army

1937, February 14: Vladek and Anja marry (he is age 30, she 24)

1937, October: son Richieu is born in Sosnowiec

1939, August 24: Vladek is called to serve in the Polish army

September 1: Germany invades Poland

September 4: Germans enter Sosniwiec Vladek is arrested as a prisoner of war

September 28: Poland surrenders

December 23: Jewish property in Poland is confiscated Vladek and Anja's father lose their factories

1940, February : Vladek is released from the POW camp and sent to Lublin

1941, December : All Jews in Sosnowiec are forced to live in the ghetto section

1942, May 10-12: "Aktion" (deportation) of 1500 from Sosnowiec, includes Anja's parents

June: Jews deported from Sosnowiec to Auschwitz

August 12: Jews called to Sosnowiec stadium, then deported to Auschwitz

Vladek's parents are also deported and murdered in 1942

1943, Spring: all remaining Jews in Sosnowiec are sent to Srodula ghetto

Richieu is sent to Zawiercie with his aunt Tosha

Aug. 16: most Jews in Srodula are deported to Auschwitz

Vladek and Anja are in hiding

Aug. 26: Tosha poisons herself, Richieu, her daughter Bibi and her niece Lonia to avoid deportation

1944, January : remaining Jews in Srodula are murdered; Vladek and Anja are still in hiding

March: Vladek and Anja are sent to Auschwitz; quarantine til mid-May (II, 68)

May-Aug.: Vladek works in Auschwitz tin shop

Summer: Vladek sees Anja in Birkenau

Aug.-Oct.: Vladek works in Auschwitz shoe shop, then tin/metal working again

Sept/Oct: Anja is moved from Birkenau to Auschwitz

1945, Jan.: Vladek is marched to Gross Rosen (Anja, too, then to Ravensbrück)

Feb.: Vladek is sent by train to Dachau

April: Vladek is evacuated from Dachau

Apr. 29: Dachau is liberated

May 7: Germany surrenders

Summer: Vladek is in a US displaced persons camp in Garmisch-Partenkirchen he goes to Bergen-Belsen, learns that Anja is in Sosnowiec, and goes there to meet her

1946: Vladek and Anja move from Poland to Sweden; Vladek starts a business

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Source: Marcuse, Harold. Introduction about Maus. 2012.


BY: Sisi Xu

Key concepts

KEY Concepts - Maus



"Maus books have been translated into over twenty five languages, and the work was chosen by the new york public library and the New York Times Book review as one of the 100 most significant books of the last century. "

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Maus was based on the experiences of Art Spiegelman's parents as concentration camp survivors. He took this premise to a full-blown graphic novel, and drew from 1980 to 1986. In Maus, different races and nationalities are portrayed differently. Jews as mice and the Germans(Nazis) as cats(Katzies).


A precursor to Maus was first published in underground comic magazine called Funny Animals in 1972. The work was only three pages long, but includes most of the elements.

First volume of Maus was published in 1987, following with enormous critical and commercial success, and to this day it is widely considered to the among the best and most powerful of Holocaust- inspired works.

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Maus consists of two primary narratives. The First is directed by Art's father, Vladek Spiegelman, who explained his experiences in the Holocaust to his son, through a series of interviews. The narratives begins pre-war Poland and tracks his life over a period of approximately ten years. From marriage to his wife, Anja, in 1937, through his experiences in Auschwitz, and to his immigration to Sweden after the war. The second narrative focuses on Art's interviews with his father, and their current life. Story also contains a minor narrative story. The short is his originally published story in 1972, which details the story of Art's mother's suicide.


The impact and complexity of Maus, is far greater than most work of this medium. Story explores the nature of guilt, and serves as a meditation on the effects of a major historical event - traumatic events of the Holocaust - on the lives of people who were born after it ended. Best known for their shifting graphic styles, formal complexity, and controversial content. With its complex themes and structure and and unconventional medium of a graphic novel. Maus in many ways rises above genre to become something completely unique. It is an amazing and lasting story that is destined to be a classic.

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'MetaMaus' - 25th - anniversary 'Maus' compendium (Art Spiegelman - Pantheon Books)

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Photo reference.

Cavna, Michael. 'MetaMaus': 'MAUS' creator Art Spiegelman reveals emotional journey to toady's 25th- anniversary book.

BY: Sisi Xu

Adult Life

Adult Life

Art Spiegelman

Art Spiegelman moved to San Francisco from 1971 - 1975 where comix appeared. He moved back to NYC and began doing drawings and comics for the New York Times, village voice and playboy. Besides his cartooning career, Art Spiegelman edited several comix magazine. and became an instructor at the school of Visual Arts.

Spiegelman's career took flight with the publication of the first rendition of Maus in 1972. In 1979-1980 he co-founded RAW magazine, the acclaimed avant-garde, unconventional comics, with his wife, artist Françoise Mouly. In the pages of Raw, He helped reveal important Moriarty. For eleven years, Raw lavishly presented groundbreaking work by contemporary cartoonists.2



Spiegelman published Maus I in 1986 and Maus II in 1991 and received National book critics circle nominations for both. In 1992 he Won Special Pulitzer Prize for the masterful Holocaust narrative Maus.


Art Spiegelman lives in New York City with his wife and two children, Nadja and Dashiell. He received an honorary doctorate from Binghamton University in 1995.

"One work dominates what I have done," - Art Spiegelman (Photo by Nadja Spiegelman)

Timeline

1970: Art publishes "Prisoner from Hell Planet" (reproduced in Maus)
1972: Art publishes "Maus" in Funny Animals (3 page comic)
1975: Art meets the woman he will marry, Françoise Mouly (b. 1955)
1978: Art Spiegelman starts drawing Maus
1979, Aug.: Art and Françoise spend time in the Catskill mountians (NY) with Vladek
1980: Art and Françoise start the avant-garde magazine RAW
Art begins drawing Maus, which is serialized in RAW
1982, Aug. 18: Vladek dies of congestive heart failure
1986: first volume of Maus published
1987: Art and Françoise's daughter Nadja born
1991: second volume of Maus published
1992-: Art starts working for the New Yorker (he resigns some time after 9/11/2001)
1992: Art wins a Pulitzer Prize for Maus
1992: son Dashiell born
1993-: Françoise works as art editor at the New Yorker
2004: Art publishes In the Shadow of No Towers
2005: Art begins publishing a comix format memoir, Portrait of the Artist as a Young !@##$%!, which incorporates some of his most significant early underground comix.

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The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. Art Spiegelman. 2012

Comic creator Lamblek. Art Spiegelman. 2012



BY: Sisi Xu

Early Life

Early Life


to approx. age 20~


Brief Biography


Name: Art Spiegelman (or) Arthur Spiegelman
Born: 15 February 1048.
Place of Birth: Stockholm, Sweden.



"Art Spiegelman has, according to the LA Weekly, almost single-handedly brought comic books out of the toy closet and onto the literature shelves."

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Arthur Spiegelman was born in Stockholm Sweden. His family immigrated to the United States in 1951, and spent his early life in Rego Park, New York. Art attended High school of art and design in manhattan His parents wished him to become a dentist. Instead, Spiegelman studied cartooning in high school and started drawing professionally at age sixteen. He majored in art and philosophy at Binghamton University's Harpur College of Arts.
He left college two years after without a degree, following a brief but intense nervous breakdown and was hospitalized .


Spiegelman's early career began in 1966, working for Topps Gum Company. He stayed as creative consultant for almost twenty years(1966-1987) until a dispute over the ownership of his original artwork caused him to leave.
After leaving college in 1969 , he joined the underground comix movement. (1)



Timeline

1948, Feb. 15: Art Spiegelman is born in Stockholm
1951: Spiegelman family immigrates to US, Art grows up in Queens, New York
1965: Art attends the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan
1968, ca. March: Art has a brief but intense nervous breakdown & is hospitalized
May 21: Anja commits suicide after Art returns home

Art leaves Harpur college/SUNY Binghamton (major: art & philo)

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1. underground comix and the underground press
Late 1960s saw the emergence of underground comics, a new wave of humorous, hippie-inspired comic books that dealt with social and political subjects like sex, drugs, rock music and anti- war protest.


DirectorsClub. Art Spiegelman. 2006

GradeSaver. Biography of Art Spiegelman. 2012


BY: Sisi Xu