ESSAY CEMETERY

1. Introduction: Spiegelman's Maus and Ricoeur's concept of narrative time Art Spiegelman is the author of Maus , a two-volume book in cartoon form. The book is an autobiography as well as a biography of Art's father, Vladek, who was a Holocaust survivor. Maus moves back and forth between scenes from Art's life in New York City and depictions of Vladek in the Holocaust. Spiegelman explores his father's past, his own past and his own present as part of the struggle he experiences in being the child of a Holocaust survivor. Throughout the work, Spiegelman's story is closely twined with that of his father. Indeed, the narrative moves between time frames so frequently that story of father and story of son begin to merge, and Spiegelman's identity becomes closely associated with the life of his father. Paul Ricoeur's concept, which he develops in his essay "Narrative Time," is a valuable aid in understanding the role of these shifts be...

The book is a set of stories told in comic strip format. The front inside cover quotes Adolf Hitler- "The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human." I assume from the title, then, that it is a comic strip about the Holocaust. The introduction depicts a mouse left behind by his friends after his roller skate broke. He tells his mouse-father this, and the father suggests that his friends be left in a room together for a week with no food to test their "friendship". I think the father meant that their friendship would not hold if put to the test. Also I think this implies that the father has been through hard times that involved friends disappointing him, and also that he is protective of his son. The 3 rd chapter depicts a man, the writer (metafiction!) with a mouse mask over his head. This hints at the biographical nature of the comics. Obviously a comic strip is a strange medium in which to relate to the Holocaust. This may be a mechanism of ...