Maus Written in Comic Form Art Spiegelman

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“Maus Written in Comic Form” Art Spiegelman’s Maus I and II were the first graphic novels to win the Pulitzer Prize and a Guggenheim fellowship. The Pulitzer Prize is a prize awarded annually for excellence in American journalism, literature, or music. Lots of attention is given to Spiegelman’s new genre of writing. Genre can be defined as a piece of literature, marked by a distinctive style form or content. The mix of genres raises questions about the classification of the book, but also about the nature of classification itself; an important issue in terms of its subject matter. Art Speigelman used comic as his own narrative hybrid version of comic narrative. James Young wrote that Spiegelman’s “Maus” also suggest itself as a model for what He calls “received history”—a narrative hybrid that interweaves both events of the Holocaust and the ways they are passed down to us. This story structure can’t replace, it accounts for history- instead it can give us a different perspective on it. I also think that this means that this type of story is different from what readers can get from “history” books, because this is from an actual survivors point of view. Maus challenges us all to explore not only the Holocaust but also literary style. We do not think in order nor do we always remember our past in order, on the contrary our minds shuffle around constantly. So what better way to be able to express ones thoughts then through hypertext. Hypertext allows not only the author more freedom to write, but the reader gets more flexibility for understanding also. Without this form of text is written by the other in a certain manner and order. It is up to the reader to follow along and understand the author’s intent just how it appears on paper. We know that as readers this is not always the situation. We may miss something so minute or so drastic

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