The Graphic Novel
ENGL 375TT [@UMW]
Maus
Legitimize Me!
Congrats to Asterios Polyp! Winning the L.A. Times Book Prize for Graphic Novels, as announced two days ago, it appears Asterios Polyp is starting to leave quite an impression in the world of graphic novels. But to me, this is something much bigger. The L.A. Times, for the first time ever, is giving out awards to graphic novels. The genre has slowly been gaining acceptance, but this is pretty big. Take a look around, and the signs seem to indicate that graphic novels are becoming more and more of a legitimate genre. And that, to me, has been the problem. Sure, people can accept graphic novels as a genre, but how legitimate was their perception? There have long been stigmas associated with graphic novels, such as that they are just comics on steroids, but there are now highly esteemed awards being cast out to graphic novels.
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After the L.A. Times Book Review recently created a category for graphic novels, this proves yet another step in the right direction for graphic novels to be viewed as legitimate
A Memoir and a Maus
Our continuing discussions in class and the book we recently completed about adaptation got me thinking about a graphic novel that I have recently started to read called Maus. Although this graphic novel is not an adaptation, biographies are not typically written as graphic novels. Maus by Art Spiegelman is the story of his father's time spent in a concentration camp during WWII. Spiegelman creates a realistic world which exposes us to the horror of the holocaust with out scarring readers into closing the book. I think that Spiegelman achieves this by depicting the characters as animals instead of people thus placing another step between the reader and the characters. He shows Jews as mice, Nazis as cats, and non Jewish Poles as pigs. These anamorphic depictions also highlight the predatory nature of the Nazi regime and how powerless the Jews really felt. Read more . . .
Maus by Art Spiegelman
