Art Spiegelman, Maus: A Survivor's Tale

David Andrew Loman (Memorial University of Newfoundland)

Ed. by Nick Selby, University of East Anglia
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1986

Places

United States (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Graphic / Comic

Resources

Art Spiegelman’s celebrated graphic narrative Maus: A Survivor’s Tale tells two intertwined stories: the desperate struggle of his parents, Jews living in Poland in the 1930s and 1940s, to survive the Nazis’ Final Solution; and his own difficult, frequently adversarial relationship with his father in 1980s New York State. A masterpiece of comics art, Maus was published serially in the 1980s and early 1990s and collected in two volumes, the first published in 1986 and the second in 1991; lacking a category that might include Maus, the Pulitzer board conferred a special Pulitzer on Spiegelman in 1992.

To those readers only superficially acquainted with ambitious or serious comics – a large category that …

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4080 words

Citation: Loman, David Andrew. "Maus: A Survivor's Tale". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 January 2011 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=14570, accessed 31 October 2024.]

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