Masaryk University

Faculty of Arts

Department of English
and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Alžběta Lačňáková

Visual Language in Art Spiegelman’s

Maus
Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Ph.D.

2015
1
 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently,
using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

……………………………………………..
Author’s signature

2
 Acknowledgement
I would like to thank my supervisor doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Ph.D. for his kind and helpful
advice.

3
Table of Contents

1. Introduction............................................................................................................5

2. Comics as a Narrative Medium..............................................................................7

2.1.Defining Comics...........................................................................................7

2.2.Vocabulary of Comics..................................................................................8

2.3.History of Comics.........................................................................................9

3. Visual Language in Maus.....................................................................................16

3.1.Animal Metaphor........................................................................................16

3.2.Drawing Style.............................................................................................20

3.3.Photographs................................................................................................25

3.4.Time in Comics...........................................................................................30

3.4.1.“In Auschwitz we didn’t wear watches:” Time in Maus.....................32

3.5.Maus as an Autobiography.........................................................................38

4. Conclusion............................................................................................................41

Works Cited.................................................................................................................42

Résumé ........................................................................................................................44

4
1. Introduction
The main objective of my thesis is to analyze how the visual language functions

in graphic novels and to identify the visual narrative techniques used by Art Spiegelman

in the graphic novel Maus. The primary focus of my thesis will be Art Spiegelman’s

graphic novel Maus which consists of two parts: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds

History and And Here My Troubles Began. Spiegelman started working on the graphic

novel Maus in 1978 and the second volume Maus II was published in 1991. The novel

tells a story of Spiegelman’s parents Vladek and Anja who were both Polish Jews and

survived the Nazi death camps in the WWII. The story is narrated by Art Spiegelman

himself. Therefore, Maus is difficult to categorize as it is neither fiction nor non-fiction

and both a biography and an autobiography. Creating Maus was a very demanding and

time-consuming process as Spiegelman was determined to research every detail about

the holocaust and make his book as authentic as possible. The outcome of this effort

was praised by critics and Maus is the first graphic novel to have won a Pulizer Prize.

Narrative structures in a comic book differ from a traditional literary work and

the reader must pay equal attention to the pictures as to the text. The thesis examines the

relationship between the pictures and the texts in the graphic novel. The most eminent

visual feature in the graphic novel is certainly Spiegelman’s use of the animal metaphor:

Jews are pictured as mice, Germans as cats, French as frogs etc. The thesis will describe

both the benefits and the limits of the animal metaphor and show that it does not only

serve to strengthen the stereotypes. As a lot of critical attention was paid to the use of

the animal metaphor, this thesis also focuses on other aspects of Spiegelman’s visual

language such as the drawing style, use of photographs or merging different time lines

in one panel. It shows that Spiegelman uses more drawing styles in the novel and how it

5
varies according to the subject portrayed. The thesis also touches upon the question of

the use of comic media for telling a holocaust story and address the suitability of this

media for such a story.

The methods used for this thesis require close reading of the primary sources as

well as research of the core books in the field of theory of comics and literary journal

articles. Spiegelman’s book MetaMaus is crucial for dealing with Maus as it is a

collection of interviews with Spiegelman about the process of creating Maus. He

describes in a detailed way all stages of creating a graphic novel and also the limits of

the medium. In order to address the use of comic medium in Maus one should at first

understand how comics function in general. Scott McCloud’s book Understanding

Comics: The Invisible Art (1994) helps to understand the formal aspects of comics and

provides a survey of the historical development of comics.

First chapter of this thesis is devoted to comics medium in general. It explores

various ways of defining comics as well as the historical development of comics. It also

describes what a typical comic book page consists of. The main part of the thesis is the

second chapter which deals with the visual language in Spiegelman’s graphic novel

Maus. Each subsection of the second chapter examines a different aspect of

Spiegelman’s visual language. Chapters about drawing style or the use of photographs

focus predominantly on the visual part of the graphic novel whereas chapters dealing

with time in Maus or autobiographical aspects of Maus pay more attention to the textual

part of the graphic novel. However, one cannot really separate the text from the pictures

and to fully comprehend a visual language in graphic novels it is essential to explore the

relationship between the story and the pictures.

6
2. Comics as a Narrative Medium

2.1. Defining Comics

Since the establishment of comic scholarship there have been many attempts to

define comics. Yet, all the attempts differ as each theorist chose different aspect of

comic medium as the core feature of their definition. Scott McCloud who is widely

recognized “as the founding father of the field” (Miodrag 6) in his theoretical book

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art started with Will Eisner’s term “sequential

art” (7). He evaluated on this term and defined comics as “juxtaposed pictorial and other

images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an

aesthetic response in the viewer” (9). For McCloud, sequence is the key feature of

comics as he points out that single panels – or “cartoons” – are not comics because there

is “no such thing as a sequence of one” (20). The deliberate sequence of images allows

for the so-called “closure”1 which is another central element of comics according to

McCloud (63). He also uses the word “juxtaposed” in his definition in order to

distinguish comics from film which shows “images in deliberate sequence” as well but

only one image at a time.

Art Spiegelman, the author of graphic novel Maus which is this thesis’s primary

subject, uses a much simpler definition. He describes comics as “a narrative series of

cartoons” (166). One may argue that cartoon is a deceptive term and that not all the

comics use cartoon images. The key word in Spiegelman’s definition is “narrative” as

he stresses the ability of comic images to convey a certain story. Neither McCloud nor

1
Closure is further explained in the section 2.2 of this thesis

7
Spiegelman see words as an essential part of comics and their definitions allow

sequential images without text to be defined as comics.

Karin Kukonnen in her recent textbook Studying comics and Graphic novels

provides a definition which encompasses words as well as images when she describes

comics as “a medium that communicates through images, words, and sequence” (4).

She thinks of comics mostly as of a “mode of communication” (5). For Kukonnen part

of the definition also concerns the production of comics as she later adds to her

definition that comics “emerge from the production context of popular mass culture of

the twentieth century” (102).

Those attempts serve as an illustration of the variability of comics definitions.

What might be defined as comics by one scholar must not fit in another scholar’s

definition of comics. Thus, the way comics are defined has an influence on how one

perceives the history of comics2. All the definitions help one to realize what is specific

for comics and distinguishes comics from other media.

2.2. Vocabulary of Comics

In order to describe and analyze comics one has to at first define the elements

which a comics page consist of. Therefore a brief overview of the comics terminology

will be provided in this section. A comics page usually consist of a certain number of

panels which are “the boxes” in which the reader sees the images (Kukonnen 8). A

panel could be defined as “a snapshot of the action” and neighboring panels usually

somehow relate to each other and suggest “what has happened before” and what will

follow (Kukonnen 8). The characters within panels often communicate through speech

2
Scott McCloud clearly perceives the history of comics differently than Karin Kukonnen because of the
differences in their definitions of comics. History of comics is discussed in section 2.3 of this thesis.

8
bubbles. Speech bubbles present a character’s thoughts or utterances in a form of a

written text. A speech bubble’s “tail” is directed to the character which allows the

reader to relate the utterance to its speaker (Kukonnen 8). In addition to the speech

bubbles, written text also appears in captions or sound effects. Caption is a box usually

at the top of the panel which presents a narrator’s voice and therefore is not connected

to any of the characters. The lettering of the written text also plays an important part in

the narrative of comics. Will Eisner in Comics and Sequential Art argues that “letters of

a written alphabet, when written in a singular style, contribute to meaning” (9). Art

Spiegelman makes use of the lettering in Maus when he writes certain words in bold

letters to let the reader know which words are stressed in the characters’ speech.

The space between two panels is called the gutter and is very meaningful in the

process of creating a story in the mind of the reader. The gutter is the space where the

reader’s mind connects the two panels and tries to “integrate them into a single,

meaningful narrative” (Kukonnen 10). This act of connecting two separate images and

relating them to each other is called “closure” (McCloud 63). McCloud further defines

closure as “the phenomenon of observing the parts but perceiving the whole” and sees it

as an essential part of our daily lives (63). The act of closure makes comic readers

active and willing participants of the narrative as they have to fill in the missing

information between the panels on their own, based on their imagination and past

experience (McCloud 65-69).

2.3. History of Comics

McCloud has traced comics in the history as far back as to the Egyptian

paintings or the Bayeux Tapestry. He pointed out that they are images in a deliberate

sequence telling certain story and therefore they fit his definition of comics. Karin

9
Kukonnen among other critiques has objectified to this claim stating two main

differences between comics and the Bayeux tapestry. First, the tapestry lacks the main

technical characteristics of the comics, namely the panels, speech bubbles and captions

(Kukonnen 100). Second, the tapestry does not fit her definition as it is only one “hand-

embroidered” piece of art whereas comics are “printed and reproduced on a large scale”

(100). The elements specific for comics medium such as panels and speech bubbles can

be found even before the beginning of the mass-production of comics in the 20th

century. The Memorial Portrait of Sir Henry Unton of 1596 consists of separate images

which are ordered in a sequence from right to left. Sir Henry Unton’s life begins on the

right side of the canvas and his death is depicted on the left. Important episodes from his

life are depicted in separate images which are divided by “rivers, rooms and other

elements of the setting” and thus creating the so-called “proto-panels” (Kukonnen 100).

There are also predecessors of today’s speech bubbles to be found earlier on,

particularly in medieval illuminated manuscripts. People portrayed in the manuscripts

would often emanate scrolls directly from their mouths or hands. Those scrolls served to

“integrate key phrases into the illustrations” (Kukonnen 100-101). This kind of

visualization of the communication is very effective in conveying certain message and

therefore it is quite understandable that written text has been integrated into visual

narration across centuries. Although those pieces of art resemble comics in many ways,

they differ in the means of production. They are hand-made in only one copy whereas

modern comics are printed and widely distributed (Kukonnen 101-102).

The rise of the modern comics is closely tied to the rise of mass culture and

media. With the beginning of mass produced media such as newspapers and satirical

magazines appeared also political cartoons and satirical drawings. They used typical

comics elements such as “speech bubbles and speed lines since the mid-nineteenth

10
century” (Kukonnen 102). Satirical picture stories by William Hogarth (1697-1764)

were meant “to be viewed side by side - in sequence” (McCloud 17). At first they were

series of paintings and later “reproduced as engravings and widely distributed”

(Kukonnen 102). They are also an example of merging images with written text as the

scenes depicted on the engravings “are described in written text at the bottom”

(Kukonnen 102). Another important figure in the history of comics is the Swiss writer

and illustrator Rudolphe Töpffer (1799-1846) whose picture stories can be seen as a

milestone in the development of comics. He used speech bubbles, employed a limited

drawing style of cartooning and combined his images into sequences. Moreover, he

employed panel borders between two images and was the first author in Europe who

introduced “interdependent combination of words and pictures” (McCloud 17). Töpffer

also published self-reflective essays where he commented on his own medium and

brought some insights into the characterization of comics (Kukonnen 103). McCloud

sees it as unfortunate that Töpffer did not realize “the full potential of his invention” and

perceived it as a “mere diversion, a simple hobby” (17). Even Johann Wolfgang von

Goethe saw big potential in Töpffer’s work and suggested that with some restrictions

and “a less frivolous subject” Töpffer “would produce things beyond all conception.”

(qtd. in McCloud 17). Nevertheless, Töpffer’s caricatures proved to be popular with

readers as they were published in both European and American newspapers (Kukonnen

103).

At the beginning of the twentieth century, comics became a fixed part of most of

the newspapers. They often appeared in the Sunday extras which consisted of bigger

pages and thus provided more room for experiments with panel arrangement and page

layout. The Sunday pages were supposed to amuse their readers and frequently featured

page layout in four-color print. At the turn of the century also emerged some of the

11
well-known characters of the American comics such as Richard F. Outcault’s The

Yellow Kid who was part of various series published in the US newspapers, Hogan’s

Alley (1895-98) being the most prominent one (Kukonnen 104). The early newspaper

comics reflected changes in the American society such as the growth of the urban

population and the emerging city lifestyle.

The first comic books3 were published in the 1930s and served mostly as a

“promotional give-away” to advertise for other products (Kukonnen 106). Publishers

then found out that comic books can be sold for their own sake and adopted “genres and

commercial practices” from the pulp magazines (Kukonnen 106). Hence, some of the

popular characters from pulp magazines such as Robert E. Howard’s Conan the

Barbarian were transformed into comics. 1930s are also period when the first superhero

emerged. It was Superman whose first story was published in 1938 in a comic book

Action Comics (Kukonnen 107). The era after 1938 is commonly referred to as the

Golden Age of superhero comics. The superhero comics became immensely popular

with the readers, sold very well and comics artists produced many superhero characters

and stories. Within the next twenty years, superhero comics became the dominant genre

with the biggest readership. Comics generally became “a major cultural force in the

United States” in the 1930s and 1940s and expanded its genres and audience

enormously (Kukonnen 107). 90 percent of young boys and girls read comics in the

1950s. Besides superhero comics, there were also adventure books for boys teaching the

young Americans how to behave in agreement with the morality of the 1950s. Young

girls could read romance comics which encouraged the traditional gender role of a

housewife promoted in mass culture. In contrast to those morally conforming books,

late 1940s and early 1950s also brought the genre of horror comic which were often full

3
Comic book in this context refers to a periodical of a standard-format described by Hartfield as a
“cheap magazine printed on a raunchy paper” (8)

12
of murders, vampires and cannibals (Kukonnen 107). This was one of the triggers for

the debate about influence of comics on young people. Parents, politicians and

psychologists in the 1950s started to worry that comic books depicting sordid crimes

will negatively influence the youth, cause deterioration of their morals and thus have a

negative impact on the society (Kukonnen 110). In 1954 was introduced a new set of

rules for comics which was published as The Comics Code. All new comics were

inspected by the office of the Comics Code Authority. If they didn’t contain violence,

sexual suggestive imagery, or escape from justice for criminals, they were approved.

Thus, the typical plot from horror comics could not be approved. Sellers of comics did

not want comic books without a seal of approval and sales of comics dropped rapidly.

1960s put comics into a new perspective when pop artists like Roy Lichtenstein

used comics elements in their work and exhibited those pictures in galleries. Until that

time comics were always seen as a part of low culture but pop artists wanted to question

the traditional distinction between high and low culture and shock the art establishment

(Kukonnen 117). 1960s were era of counterculture and anti-Vietnam protests. Those

counterculture movements also gave rise to underground comix. The authors of

underground comix considered comics a medium for self-expression and often looked

for inspiration to the Beats movement in the literature. They did not want to be limited

by The Comics Code as they wanted to freely depict their personal experiences such as

sexual intercourse or drug abuse. Therefore they published and distributed the comics

on their own. Underground comix were often drawn in a personalized style and had a

characteristic narrative voice which made them quite distinct from the mass produced

comics. They were the first comic books directed only towards adults, not children,

which completely redefined the audience of comics. Alternative comix artists ironically

used the traditional standard-format comic book which developed in the 1930s but filled

13
it with “stories that could hardly be carried on mainstream newsstands” because of their

“radical content” (Hartfield 11). Thus they created a deceptive product which seemed to

be conforming at a first glance but which was in fact quite confrontational. The

underground comix were often full of appropriation of popular characters, topics, scenes

and genres which were then used for personally radical and politically subversive

purposes (Hartfield 18).

The underground comix movement was much repressed in the 1970s when The

Supreme court deferred the question of “obscenity” 4 and thus threatened the circulation

of alternative comix as their content was often not far from obscene. Furthermore, the

anti-drug laws were introduced in the US and caused that many underground shops

were closed which broke down the underground distribution of comics (Hartfield 19).

Hence, the field of comix became fractioned and artists became less interested in

creating politically oriented comics. This tendency mirrored the general mood in the

American society of the late 1970s when the counterculture started to recede.

According to Charles Hartfield the most important factors which characterize the

underground comix are “sporadic publication” of the underground comic books,

“emphasis on the author rather than on established commercial properties, the

development of an alternative economy” and the “reexamination” of the popular topics

and characters (18). Those factors combined together gave rise to the alternative comics

movement of the 1980s and 1990s. The movement rejected the normativity and

narrative clichés of mass-produced comic books and created an “unprecedented

aesthetic freedom” (Hartfield 20). Furthermore, they introduced long-form comics and a

graphic novel. They also redefined the packaging and alternative comic books had a

variety of different covers. American comics in the 1980s were also highly influenced

by the so-called “British Invasion” (Kukonnen 118). Writers and illustrators from the
4
Landmark decision Miller v. California (Hartfield 19)

14
UK started to cooperate with the big American publishing houses such as DC or

Marvel. They brought new perspectives on creating comics, showed that comics can be

an artistically complex medium suitable for social commentary. British artists

frequently reflected on their medium within their work. A great example of this

tendency is Alan Moore’s Watchmen (1986) which among other topics also explores the

conflict between high and low culture which the comics has undergone in the past.

Art Spiegelman’s Maus is a typical example of alternative comics as it is a very

personal story which arises from an oral narrative and uses animal characters for telling

a very difficult and politically oriented story. Spiegelman used the animals to figure the

human characters intentionally to refer to the early underground comix funny animals.

Hence, he created a conflict between the complex and confronting content of his book

and the seemingly simple and cheerful animal characters. Spiegelman created Maus

independently, “outside the boundaries of conventional comic book publishing

(Hartfield 18). However, Maus is also an example of an alternative comic book which

eventually entered the mainstream book market when it became popular.

3. Visual Language in Maus

15
 3.1. Animal Metaphor

Spiegelman first considered using an animal metaphor for a story of racism in

America, to distinguish colored people and white Americans, turning Ku Klux Klan into

Ku Klux Kats. After he realized that this topic would be too problematic, he decided to

create something more personal, a story of “the Nazis chasing Jews as they had in

[Spiegelman’s] childhood nightmares” (Spiegelman MetaMaus, 114). Thus, Spiegelman

used the “cat-mouse metaphor of oppression” when creating a short three-page comics

strip for an underground magazine Funny Animals in 1972 (Spiegelman MetaMaus,

113). The main character of this short version of Maus is called Mickey and has a

Mickey Mouse lamp on his nightstand which serves to illuminate the room while his

father tells him stories about Holocaust (Ewert 92). It points back directly to Walt

Disney’s cartoon and the “funny animals” genre of comics. The main difference

between the three page comic strip and the graphic novel Maus is that the animal

characters in the short Maus are not aware of the fact that they represent Jews and

Nazis. The Jews are referred to as die Mausen and the Nazis are referred to as die

Katzen. This usage of German suggests that the story is about Nazis and Jews but it is

not explicitly said in the story. The factory in the ghetto where Vladek works is not

presented as a shoe factory but as a kitty litter factory (Spiegelman MetaMaus, 118).

There is no direct reference made to Jews or Nazis in the narrative and the reader can

figure out the metaphor only because events in the story correspond to real historical

events.

In contrast, the animal characters in the graphic novel Maus know that they are

Jews and Nazis but they do not know that they are depicted as animals. Spiegelman

explains that it was not possible to maintain the consistency of the animal metaphor

throughout the length of a graphic novel. “It is impossible not to talk about Jews and
16
Nazis because I want to talk in detail about what happened. One can’t keep changing it

to metaphor.” (qtd. in Ewert 93). When saying that “Only through the specific could I

imply the general” Spiegelman implies the importance of using concrete facts and

details in the story to make it real (Spiegelman MetaMaus, 120). He is aware of the

difficulties which the animal metaphor brings about. He has to deal with the question of

portraying actual animals such as pets or vermin in the narrative. For example Anja is

terrified of rats when she and Vladek hide in a cellar and Vladek comforts her by telling

her that “They’re just mice!” (Spiegelman Maus, 149). Spiegelman highlights the word

mice by making the text bold to emphasize the irony of the whole situation. Another

such situation is when the Germans who are depicted as cats have dogs on leashes

(Spiegelman Maus, 195). Spiegelman explicitly comments on those problems when he

talks to his therapist Pavel in the self-reflective chapter “Auschwitz (time flies)”. Pavel

is Jewish and therefore portrayed as a mouse but he keeps dogs and cats as pets. When

Art comes to his therapy session and sees the pets, he asks: “Can I mention this or does

it completely louse up my metaphor?” (Spiegelman Maus, 203). Another problem

appears when Spiegelman wants to draw his wife Francois who is French but has

converted to Judaism. He finally decides to draw her as a mouse but in his mind he

imagines a story of a frog who needs to go to a mouse rabbi to be turned into a

“beautiful mouse” (Spiegelman, Maus 172). Spiegelman also has to deal with a

portrayal of a hybrid animal, an offspring of a Jewish man and a German woman. He

solves this problem by drawing a mouse with tiger stripes.

When Spiegelman created the three page comic strip in 1972 he did not know

that the dehumanization of Jews was a central idea to the Nazi propaganda. However,

before he started working on Maus, the graphic novel, he did extensive research about

the Nazi ideology. He found a German documentary from 1940 The Eternal Jew which

17
shows Jews as rats “swarming in a sewer” and describes them as the “vermin of

mankind” (Spiegelman MetaMaus, 115). Furthermore, he found out that the

dehumanization was not only part of the Nazi genocide but also of many other massive

killing projects. For example Tutsis who were killed during the genocide in Rwanda

were referred to as cockroaches. Dehumanization distinguishes genocide from murder:

“One murders people, one commits genocide on subhumans” (Spiegelman MetaMaus,

115). In his epigraph to the first volume of Maus Spiegelman quotes Adolf Hitler: “The

Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human.” (qtd. in Spiegelman Maus, 10).

Thus he shows that the animal metaphor reflects the Nazi view of Jews as vermin which

has to be exterminated. In the epigraph to the second volume Spiegelman makes the

connection between pop culture and the dehumanization of Jews explicit when he

quotes a newspaper article printed in Germany in mid-1930s:

Mickey Mouse is the most miserable ideal ever revealed…Healthy emotions

tell every independent young man and every honorable youth that the dirty and

filth-covered vermin, the greatest bacteria carrier in animal kingdom, cannot be

the ideal type of animal…Away with Jewish brutalization of the people! Down

with Mickey Mouse! Wear the Swastika Cross! (qtd. in MetaMaus 164)

Spiegelman does not want to simply copy the Nazi metaphor which portrays Jews as

inherently inferior to the Germans. Therefore he draws the cats and the mice in the same

height and thus makes them equal in certain sense. He also points out that even people

who did not identify themselves as Jews were killed in the concentration camps.

18
 Fig. 1. A Jew or a German? (Maus 210)

Vladek tells Art about a prisoner from Auschwitz who was always complaining: “I

don’t belong here with all the Yids and Polacks! I’m a German like you! […] I have

medals from the Kaiser. My son is a German soldier!” (see fig. 1) Nevertheless, he does

not convince the Nazi officer and only gets hit and laughed at. When hearing this,

Spiegelman asks his father: “Was he really a German?” and draws the preceding panel

again but this time with a cat instead of a mouse. However, Vladek explains that: “for

the Germans this guy was Jewish!” and so in the next panel the man turns back into a

mouse (Spiegelman, Maus 210).

Spiegelman depicts Jews as mice, Germans as cats, Poles as pigs, French as

frogs, Brits as fish, Swedes as reindeer, Americans as dogs, and Gypsies as moths. All

those metaphors are to a certain degree based on national stereotypes. Drawing Poles as

pigs provoked many negative responses and some Poles seemed to be deeply offended

by their portrayal. When Maus was first published in Poland there was even a small

demonstration in front of the office of the publisher. Spiegelman justifies the usage of

pigs for Poles because of the duality they represent. There was strong anti-Semitism in

Poland and Poles often victimized Jews but they also suffered terribly under the Nazis.

Hitler’s plan was not to exterminate the Slavic races but rather to work them to death.

The usual purpose of keeping pigs on a farm is to slaughter them for meat. It means that
19
 pigs are not killed immediately as mice or rats would be and thus reflect the position of

Poles in the narrative. It is also important to note that pigs are outside the cat-mouse

food chain. Americans, on the other hand are depicted as dogs, which means that they

are inside the food chain. Americans are not portrayed as uniformly as other nations:

there is a lot of various breeds of dogs which reflects the diversity of the origins of

Americans.

Animal metaphor is the most eminent visual feature of Maus and therefore

deserves a lot of critical attention. It may seem simplistic at a first glance, yet, when

looking closer into the metaphor, one sees the difficulties it brings about. Spiegelman

reflects on the limits of his metaphor throughout the graphic novel. The metaphor

makes the graphic novel so powerful because it reflects the ideology behind the Nazi

genocide.

3.2. Drawing Style

The drawing style used in Maus is mostly simple and might seem quite crude to

the reader, as the drawings sometimes appear to be sketches, rather than a final version.

It is interesting to compare it to the early three page version of Maus published in 1972,

where the drawing style is much more decorative. Andreass Huyssen argues that the

early “more naturalistic version” of Maus “shows how far Spiegelman has come in his

attempt to transform the anti-Semitic stereotype for his purposes by eliminating any all-

too-naturalistic elements from his drawings.”(34). This proves that Spiegelman uses the

rough drawing style in Maus deliberately and not because of his limited ability to draw

as the reader might suspect when Spiegelman claims in Metamaus that he cannot draw.

The rough drawing style seems to fit perfectly to the topic of the narrative and supports

the general mood of the graphic novel. There is a visual conflict in Spiegelman’s

20
pictures in Maus. He is in fact using two different approaches to drawing. The first one

is “documentary photo realism” (see fig. 3). Spiegelman prefers to use it when picturing

the settings and significant things such as tools (Hartfield 145). This drawing style

appears mostly in Maus II when presenting the concentration camps. Spiegelman

explains in Metamaus why he decided to use the realistic drawing for the setting in

Maus II.

I originally assumed I’d draw all the Auschwitz parts of the book in a more

deliberately sketchy mode, sort of like the image on page 63, in the first part of

Maus […] I always somehow assumed that, since I couldn’t visualize Vladek’s

life in Auschwitz - to the point of being paralyzed by the prospect - the

drawings would be more tentative, seen through a fog of scribbled lines. Oddly

enough, things got more precise as I went along. […] Maybe as a way of getting

past my own aversion I tried to see Auschwitz as clearly as I could. It was a way

of forcing myself and others to look at it. (59-60)

Charles Hartfield argues in Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature that a

Holocaust narrator is ethically obliged to authenticity and should provide as much detail

as possible. A nonrealistic presentation of the places and events would trivialize the

matter (145). In order to reach the realistic depiction of the settings, Spiegelman had to

rely on photographic resources. The importance of being accurate is clearly seen in the

beginning of Maus II, when Spiegelman visits his psychotherapist Pavel and complains

that he cannot visualize the tools from the tin shop. It seems that he can only continue

working on the book when he can visualize the tools (Spiegelman, Maus 206).

21
Fig. 2. Documentary photo realism (Maus 230)

Fig. 3. Cartoonal symbolism (Maus 173)

22
 The second drawing style in Maus is identified by Hartfield as “cartoonal

symbolism” (145). Spiegelman mostly uses this style for picturing the characters (see

fig. 3). When presenting the characters in Maus, Spiegelman uses the animal metaphor

and thus creates certain symbols for nationalities which are sometimes based on

stereotypes. The reader has to imagine the actual characters behind those symbols. The

mice are drawn very simply and usually do not have any facial expression. It leaves a

lot of space for imagination and enables the reader to visualize the characters according

to what is happening in the story. Hartfield also argues that “realism does not inject

serious subject matter with as much impact in comics as ‘cartoonal’ representations do”

(Lewis 52). The minimalistic portrayal of the characters enables the reader to emphasize

and identify with the characters more than a detailed realistic depiction. This is probably

caused by the fact that it is easier to relate the minimalistic-drawn characters to

somebody known to the reader or to the reader themselves, because they can serve as

general symbols. Spiegelman’s graphic language does not stress “the individual

identity” of the character but rather the “collective” one (Hartfield 145). Nevertheless,

he provides some elements which help the reader to tell one character from another. For

example, Vladek after the war is always pictured with spectacles and Francois is always

wearing a striped T-shirt and a scarf. Spiegelman deliberately tries to avoid merely

illustrating the story with pictures and therefore he chose the minimalistic style. He did

not want to draw the reader’s attention away from the story which can be the case when

pictures are too decorative. In such case, the reader is only looking at complicated

drawings and forgets about the story. The story should operate somewhere “between the

words and the idea that’s in the pictures and in the movement between the pictures

which is the essence of what happens in a comic” (Huyssen 35). Moreover, the

23
minimalist style of drawing serves Spiegelman’s purpose of avoiding an overtly literal

or sentimental presentation of the Holocaust (Hartfield 145).

Andreas Huyssen further argues that Spiegelman “enacted and justified” his use

of the animal metaphor within the book by inserting the four page comic strip Prisoner

on the Hell Planet (33). Those four pages about Anja’s suicide serve as a reminder of

the difficulties of presenting a traumatic story. Not only are the characters in Prisoner

drawn with human faces, but also the whole drawing style is entirely different from

Maus. The characters’ faces show explicitly their emotions in an expressionist manner.

Unlike in Maus, the tone of the texts seems quite crude: “You murdered me mommy,

and you left me here to take the rap!!!” (Spiegelman, Maus 105). Thus, the Prisoner on

the Hell Planet shows a completely different approach to presenting traumatic

memories. It is clear that Spiegelman could not use this approach for the whole book

and needed to find another way. The animal metaphor enabled him to escape from the

terror of memory by keeping certain distance from the narrative.

24
3.3. Photographs
Spiegelman did not only base his drawings on photographs but also integrated

three real photographs into the book. These photographs could be understood to serve as

an authentication of the story as they show that the characters were real people.

However, they also serve as a challenge to the cartoon pictures. When looking at the

photographs one sees the banality of the animal metaphor.

The first photo appears in the imbedded strip from 1972, The Prisoner on the

Hell Planet (Fig. 4). It is a picture of Anja, Spiegelman’s mother, with Art as a little

boy. The Prisoner on the Hell Planet is dealing with Anja’s suicide and Art’s emotional

response to the tragic event. Therefore, the photo of Art with his mother was integrated

into the narrative. This photo can provide a lot of information about the relationship

between Spiegelman and his mother and the circumstances of her suicide. In MetaMaus,

Spiegelman describes this photo as “Mom and me, in a summer between tragedies”

(218). It is a picture from Art’s innocent childhood, a time between the holocaust and

Anja’s suicide. The picture shows a large standing figure of Anja and Art as a ten-year-

old boy kneeling next to her. Anja’s hand is on the top of Art’s head and it almost looks

as if she were pushing him down. Spiegelman interprets this body language as a way of

saying: “Stay small, my boy. Don’t grow up.” (MetaMaus 218). This is linked to the

fact that Anja was feeling uncertain as Art was loosening the bonds to his nuclear

family and started to live his own life. This can similarly be seen on the fourth page of

Prisoner on the Hell Planet, when Anja comes to Art’s room and asks: “Artie, you still

love me, don’t you?” (Spiegelman, Maus 105).

25
 The way the photograph of Anja and Art is imbedded into the page also plays an

important role. In the original strip Prisoner on the Hell Planet Spiegelman drew himself

holding the picture of himself and Anja. As the strips functions only as a sub-narrative

to the main story of Maus, it is positioned on the page as if Art Spiegelman were

holding the magazine. The page shows Spiegelman’s hand holding the strip and the

strip also shows Spiegelman’s hand holding the photo. Furthermore, when the reader

also holds the book in his hand it is already a third space and time zone. Andreas

Huyssen in Of Mice and Mimesis: Reading Spiegelman with Adorno suggests that

Spiegelman’s narrative is saturated with “ruptures in narrative time and highly complex

image sequencing and montaging” (30). Spiegelman likes to play with different

narrative levels which are merging into each other. He predominantly keeps them

divided but sometimes he also shows the reader that the linear understanding of time is

not the only possibility. Although the holocaust happened many years ago in Europe, it

still impacts their lives in 1980’s in America. The fact that Spiegelman drew his hand

holding the photograph and then also his hand holding the comic strip Prisoner on the

Hell Planet makes a connection between past and present.

26
 Fig. 4. Photograph of Art and Anja Spiegelman (Maus 102)

The second real photo in the book is Art’s younger brother Richieu and it

appears on the very first page of volume two (Fig. 5). This photo was already mentioned

before in the narrative on the ride to Catskills. Spiegelman never met his brother but

feels certain rivalry between him and Richieu. His parents always kept the picture on

the wall in their bedroom and therefore Richieu was always present is their lives. It

seems that neither Anja nor Vladek did get over the loss of a child as Anja is depressed

and eventually kills herself and Vladek mixes the past and the present when he calls Art

Richieu at the very end of the book. Art refers to Richieu as his “phantom brother” and

describes the photo as “a little ghostly” as it is a large blow-up from a small picture

(Spiegelman MetaMaus, 219-220). To see a picture of a small child who was actually

killed during the war has a powerful impact on the reader. The fact that this photo is put

on a single page adds even more to its seriousness. Richieu appears also earlier in the

narrative as a drawn little mouse but an actual photograph of a little boy reinforces for

the reader how real the whole story is. As Spiegelman explains in MetaMaus, he wanted

27
to include a photo of a child because the book was going to be for his children. And

because there are also photographs of Anja and Vladek in the book, he decided to

include a photo of Richieu in order to allow for each member of his childhood family to

have a photographic representation (Spiegelman MetaMaus, 220).

The third and last actual photograph in the book is Vladek’s “souvenir” photo of

his time in the camps (see fig. 6). Vladek comments on the photo: “ I passed once a

photo place what had a camp uniform – a new and clean one – to make souvenir

photos” (Spiegelman Maus, 294). Therefore the photo is not actually a realistic

depiction of a war camp prisoner. Nevertheless, it played an important part in Vladek

and Anja’s lives. Vladek tells Art: “Anja kept this picture always. I have it still now in

my desk!” When Art hears that he immediately goes to find the photo: “I need that

photo in my book!” The next panel shows Art looking at the picture: “Incredible!” he

comments on it. (Spiegelman, Maus 294-295). This photo was deliberately positioned

almost at the end of the book when the reader already has quite clear understanding of

what kind of person Vladek was. However, the only information which is given about

his appearance is that he was handsome. This photo confirms that he was good-looking

and therefore tells us that he was not only aggrandizing himself. The photo presents a

climax of the story about Anja after the war. She was alone in Sosnowiec, anxiously

awaiting Vladek’s comeback. She even went to a gypsy fortune teller to give her some

hope. She eventually got a letter from Vladek together with the picture. Anja’s reaction

to the photograph was: “And here’s a picture of him! My god - Vladek is really

alive!”(Spiegelman, Maus 294). This suggests that photographs serve as a certain

authentication of what is told. The readers are likely to react in the same way when

seeing the picture of Vladek. The photograph is not only a message for Anja, but it

carries meaning for the reader as well: Vladek was really alive. The photo is large and

28
tipped on the angle of the page. Spiegelman often uses tipped panels as a method of

highlighting certain pictures which are particularly important for the narrative.

This photo is much more striking that the previous two as it is larger and

incorporated in the narrative itself. Hartfield argues that the photo comes as “an

incredible formal and emotional shock” (146). The first photo of Anja and Art was part

of a comic within a comic and therefore the reader could somehow expect that the

graphic language would be different. The second picture of Richieu is not imbedded in

the narrative but has its own page before the start of the second volume.

Hartfield further argues that the photo “destabilizes rather than affirms Maus’s

documentary realism” (147). Indeed, the photo does not serve as a documentation of the

reality in the camps. It is a constructed portrait of an idealized prisoner in a clean and

fitting uniform. The purpose of taking this photo was not to capture the reality, but to

reassure Anja that her husband is alive. The constructed photo reminds the reader, that

the whole story was also constructed by a human being and therefore cannot serve as an

objective documentation. Vladek’s photo should present the picture of himself which he

wants to show Anja in order to ensure her that he is alive. It is possible that Vladek also

tells his story the way he wants it to be seen. He might be doing it deliberately in order

to appear more likeable or also unconsciously by repressing certain traumatic memories.

The photo simply represents Vladek as a hero although Spiegelman himself admits that

Vladek’s survival was a matter of luck and coincidence.

29
Fig. 5. Photograph of Richieu (Maus 165)

Fig. 6. Souvenir Photo of Vladek (Maus 29)

30
3.4. Time in Comics

Comics are able to “spatially juxtapose” past, present and future on one page

which makes them an outstanding medium to convey historical narratives (Chute 453).

In comics “past is more than just memories” (McCloud 104). Even when the reader

focus their attention on a single panel which represents the present, their eyes “take in

the surrounding” panels which represent past and future (McCloud 104). Thus, reading

comics is a unique experience which enables the reader to perceive past, present and

future at the same time. Furthermore, comics are not only able to merge past and present

in a page but they are even able to merge more time lines in one panel.

Readers of comics are simultaneously moving through space and time.

However, there is no “conversion chart” which would help to find out how many

seconds or years have passed between two panels (McCloud 100). Instead, comics

artists use various means to suggest the duration of a panel or a sequence. When the

reader is familiar with the content of a panel, they can guess the duration of such a panel

because they know the situation from experience. When comics creators want to

prolong the duration of a panel, they can also use visual means. For example a

repetition of one wordless panel suggests that the event which is portrayed takes a long

time. Another way of lengthening the duration of a panel would be to widen the space

between panels, the gutter. Even the shape of a panel has an influence on one’s

perception of time. A panel which takes more space than other panels on a page seems

to take more time as well (McCloud 101). Silent panels offer the possibility of depicting

a single moment in time whereas panels with speech bubbles automatically loose this

power. It takes more than a single moment to utter words in a speech bubble. Captioned

31
panels which are otherwise silent can depict a single moment when the text in a capture

suggests so. Even when creators of comics give the reader clues about the duration of a

panel or a sequence of panels, the pace of going through the panels depends on the

reader. One can spend more time with a panel which catches one’s attention or even re-

read certain panels and thus go back in time. This makes the experience of reading

comics much more personal than for example watching a film where the pace is already

given.

Although comics are a static medium they are capable of showing motion. They

can do so in a sequence of panels by showing progress of a motion. Moreover, they are

able to depict motion within one panel by using the typical motion line (McCloud 110).

32
3.4.1. “In Auschwitz we didn’t wear watches:” Time in Maus

Maus works with several time lines: first is set in America where Art visits and

interviews his father, second in Europe during the WWII and the third is the self-

reflective chapter “Time Flies” which is set after publishing Maus I in 1987. The focus

of Maus’ narrative is always switching between past and present. Therefore, comics

medium serves ideally for such a narrative as it enables for the past and present to be

depicted on the same page. Thus, it helps the reader realize that one cannot really

separate the past from the present. Spiegelman argues that “In a story that is trying to

make chronological and coherent the incomprehensible, the juxtaposing of past and

present insists that past and present are always present” (MetaMaus 165). Spiegelman

often structures the page by using backgrounds and foregrounds to distinguish the past

from the present. The panels showing him and his father talking in the present are often

put into background whereas the panels showing past events are put into foreground

(Kokonnen 66). Kukonnen argues that the movement between background and

foreground, in this case between the past and the present, “creates a dynamic reading

experience in comics” (19).

The past in the form of holocaust trauma is always present and influences

present lives of the characters. Spiegelman makes this even more explicit when he

visually merges the past and the present into one panel. Art, Francois and Vladek drive

from Rego Park and Art talks about the revolt in Auschwitz: “Some prisoners working

in the gas chambers revolted. They killed the S.S. men and blew a crematorium” (Maus

239). In the next panel Vladek talks about “the four young girls” from Sosnowiec, who

were part of the revolt (Maus 239). He says: “they hanged them near to my workshop

[…] they hanged a long, long time” (Maus 239). The last sentence seems to correspond

33
with Spiegelman’s idea to draw the four hanged girls in the same panel as his father and

himself. “They hanged a long, long time” and in certain sense they still hang even now.

He draws them behind his car as if they were driving away from them and thus driving

away from the past (see fig.7).

The page where Vladek starts narrating his story also merges past and present in

an interesting way (see fig. 8). Art and Vladek are in Art’s childhood bedroom and

Vladek is about to start riding his exercycle. Art’s head is framed between the

handlebars and Vladek’s arms. Vladek’s tattooed number, a remembrance of the past, is

visible on his left arm. Moreover, the past is also reminded by a photograph of Anja

which is put on the table next to Art. The death of Art’s mother and Vladek’s wife had a

traumatizing effect on their lives. Vladek starts simultaneously pedaling and telling his

story and one can see young version of Vladek inside a circle which also serves as one

of the wheels of the exercycle. Spiegelman uses circles throughout the novel as

important graphic elements which serve to emphasize significant pictures in the

narrative.

Fig. 7. “They hanged a long, long time” (Maus 239).

34
Fig. 8. The narrative first dips into the past. (Maus 14)

35
 Fig. 9. The smoke from the chimney mixes with the smoke from Art’s cigarette.
(Maus 229)

Smoke also serves as a connection between past and present on various

pages in the novel. The smoke which is coming from Art’s cigarette mixes with the

smoke coming from the chimney in Auschwitz (fig. 9). It also serves as a dividing line

between Art and Vladek as it divides the panel into two halves and stresses the

discrepancy between a father who witnessed Holocaust and his son who did not. The

smoke functions in a similar way on page 211 where it joins the umbrella under which

Art and Vladek are sitting (fig. 10).

36
Fig. 10. The smoke from the chimney in Auschwitz resembles the umbrella. (Maus
211)

37
 In the meta-textual chapter “Time Flies” Spiegelman reflects on his feelings

after publishing Maus I. The most evident example of merging the past and present is

part of this chapter: Spiegelman draws a pile of dead Jews in his apartment in New

York (see fig. 11). Those emaciated dead bodies serve two main purposes. Firstly, they

cover part of the present and thus show that the past is inseparable from the present and

one would always see the shadow of the past over the present. Secondly, they illustrate

ethical questions which Spiegelman dealt with after the commercial success of Maus I.

Is it ethical to profit on a story which is based on deaths of millions of innocent people?

The second page of “Time Flies” depicts media and advertisement reporters who are

carelessly stepping on the dead bodies in order to get to Spiegelman. Art is shrinking in

his chair and talks about “the corporations that flourished in Nazi Germany” which are

now “richer than ever” (Maus 202). In “Time Flies” he does not only juxtapose images

from past and present but also events:

Vladek started working as a tinman in Auschwitz in the spring of 1944…I

started working on this page at the very end of February 1987[…]

In May 1987 Francois and I are expecting a baby…Between May 16, 1944 and

May 24, 1944 over 100,000 Hungarian Jews were gassed in Auschwitz….

(Maus 201)

By putting the present events next to the past events he points out that one cannot really

perceive the present without having the past in mind. Spiegelman finds it difficult to be

happy about becoming a father because he knows that the baby will be affected by his

family’s history.

As Spiegelman gets closer to an end of his research about his father’s story, he

realizes that it is not possible to create an exact time frame of Vladek’s stay in

38
 Auschwitz. Vladek does not seem to be certain about the duration of any of the jobs he

had there and tells Art: “In Auschwitz we didn’t wear watches” (Spiegelman Maus,

228). It reminds one of the incomprehensibility of a holocaust story.

Fig. 11. “Time Flies” (Maus 201)

3.5. Maus as an Autobiography

In This Book Contains Graphic Language: Comics as Literature Rocco Versacci

deals with the issue of using comic medium for an autobiography. He admits that

comics were traditionally expected to contain “conventions of broad humor, excessive

emotion, physical action and large but digestible conflict.” Those were seen as

39
“elements that do not easily lend themselves to the study of delicate relationship

between our inner and outer lives.”(36) However, Versacci opposes to this traditional

view in his book and argues that comics offer more possibilities for telling an

autobiographical story than a prose as they have “a more flexible range of first-person

narration” and “explore ways of autobiographical writing in ways unavailable to prose

alone” (32) Those ways do not only relate to how the reader perceives the author when

reading the autobiography but also how the author perceives himself. As comics are

always somehow exaggerating or simplifying the reality, they provide a much more

personal experience than a simple piece of prose or photography which tends to be more

realistic. In autobiographical comics the author is forced to picture himself in the way

he sees himself which tells the reader more than just seeing a photograph of the author.

Kylie Cardell in Dear World: Contemporary Uses of the Diary argues that

autobiographical comics can “portray an experience in a manner that is emotionally and

psychologically true to the unique, often idiosyncratic perspective of the author-artist”

(121). As such they make it easier for the reader to emphasize and identify with the

author. The term “autography” is often used among comics scholars to refer to

autobiographical comics. It derives from the Greek words for “self” and “writing,

drawing,” which suggests that the author uses drawing for his or her portrayal as

opposed to autobiography which refers to the traditional written genre and does not

usually involve visual style (Kukonnen 56).

It is questionable to categorize Maus simply as an autobiography. It does not

only tell the story of the author but also stories of his mother and father. One might say

that it is a biography within an autobiography. Maus does not only feature Vladek’s

story but also the conversations between Art and Vladek. Thus, it reveals a lot about the

relationship between Art and his father. It is clear that Art does not consider his father a

40
reliable narrator. He knows that his father has repressed some of his memories due to

the trauma. Vladek does not seem to recall what Art presents as well documented

historical facts. Art uses visual means to suggest that accuracy of his father’s narration

is limited. Vladek does not recall the orchestra in Auschwitz but Art draws it anyway

(fig. 12). Art also presents parts of Vladek’s story which he promised not to. Vladek

does not want to use the part of his story with his love affair with Lucia but Art uses it

and even includes his promise that he would not. Thus Maus presents the complexity of

the relationship between Art and Vladek. One gets to know Vladek not only by what he

wants to reveal about his past but also by what he wants to hide. It is an act of showing

loyalty to the reader. Spiegelman’s main goal is to keep the authenticity of the story.

The comics within a comics “Prisoner of the Hell Planet” is written even in a more

41
personal mode and reveals more about Art than about Vladek.

42
Fig. 12 The Orchestra (Maus 214)

43
4. Conclusion
Art Spiegelman challenged the traditional use of a comic medium by creating a graphic

novel about the Holocaust. He proved not only that it is possible to write comics about a

sensitive historical topic but also that comic medium is perfectly suitable for doing so. It

enables the author to juxtapose images from different time narratives in a way which is not

available in prose or film. Comics are also suitable for autobiographical narratives as they can

provide a more personal and authentic portrait of the author. Comics are not expected to

present a picture which would be undistinguishable from the reality and therefore are able to

deal with the holocaust. As everybody expects certain stylization, comics are not accused of

simplifying or sentimentalizing the topic. Spiegelman uses two different approaches to

presenting the story when drawing the panels in Maus. The first one was identified as

“documentary photo realism” and is used mostly for drawing the setting. As Spiegelman

wanted to preserve certain authenticity, he based those drawings on his large research of the

holocaust topic. Those drawings are often based on photographs of the actual places where

the story happened. The second drawing style was indicated as “cartoonal symbolism” and it

was used primarily for the characters. Spiegelman uses animal metaphor for drawing the

characters and the reader has to imagine the actual characters behind the symbols. They are

drawn in a very simple way which helps the reader to relate to the characters. Those two

drawing styles create a visual contrast but also present a compromise between too realistic

depiction and too simplified depiction of reality. Spiegelman also uses three actual

photographs in the book which serves both as an authentication and a challenge to the

narrative. On one hand, they prove that the characters were real people. On the other hand,

they stress the banality of the animal metaphor. They contribute to the general complexity of

Spiegelman’s visual language which scarcely presents a one-sided view of the events.

44
 Works Cited

Primary Sources

Spiegelman Art. Metamaus. London: Penguin Books, 2011. Print.

Spiegelman, Art. The Complete Maus. London: Penguin Books, 2003. Print.

Secondary Sources

Cardell, Kylie. Dear World: Contemporary Uses of the Diary. Madison: UP of

Wisconsin, 2014. Print.

Chute, Mirriam. “Comics as Literature? Reading Graphic Narrative.” PMLA. 123.2

(2008) 452-465. JSTOR. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.

Cohn, Neil. The Visual Language of Comics: Introduction to the Structure and
Cognition of Sequential Images. 1st pub. London: Bloomsbury, 2013. Print.

Duncan, Randy, and Matthew J Smith. The Power of Comics: History, Form, and
Culture. Repr. New York: Bloomsbury, 2013. Print.

Eisner, Will. Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices From the Legendary
Cartoonist. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2008. Print

Ewert, Jeanne C. “Reading Visual Narrative: Art Spiegelman’s “Maus”.” Narrative 8.1
(2000) 87-103. JSTOR. Web. 12 Mar. 2015.

Hartfield, Charles. Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature. Jackson: UP of

Mississippi, 2005. Print.

Horstkotte, Silke and Nancy Pedri. “Focalization in Graphic Narrative.” Narrative

(2011) 330-357. JSTOR. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.

Huyssen, Andreas. “Of Mice and Mimesis: Reading Spiegelman with Adorno.” Visual

Culture and the Holocaust. Ed. Barbie Zelizer. London: A&C Black (2001) 28-
42. Web. 26 Mar. 2015

45
Kolář, Stanislav. “The Holocaust as a Comic Book: Art Spiegelman’s Maus.” Seven
Responses to the Holocaust in American Fiction. Šenov u Ostravy: Tilia, 2004.
148-173. Print

Kukkonen, Karin. Studying Comics and Graphic Novels. 1st pub. Chichester: Wiley,
2013. Print.

Lewis, A. D. American Comics, Literary Theory, and Religion: The Superhero Afterlife.

London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. Print.

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: the Invisible Art. New York: Harper Perennial,
1994. Print.

McLennan, Rachael. American Autobiography. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2013. Print.

Miodrag, Hannah. Comics and Language: Reimagining Critical Discourse on the

Form. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 2013. Print.

Orbán, Katalyn. “Trauma and Visuality: Art Spiegelman’s Maus and In the Shadow of
No Towers.” Representations 97.1 (2007) 57-89. JSTOR. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.

Tweehuysen, A. “Minding Comics: What We See in Spiegelman’s Maus.” 2010.

Academia.edu. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.

Versacci, Rocco. This Book Contains Graphic Language: Comics as Literature. New
York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2007. Print.

Young, James E. “Holocaust as Vicarious Past: Art Spiegelman’s Maus and the
Afterimages of History.” Critical Inquiry 24.2 (1998) 666-69. Web. 27 Mar.
2015.

46
Résumé in English
This thesis deals with Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus. Its main objective

is to analyze the visual narrative structures which form the visual language in the

graphic novel. The first chapter presents a definition of comics and its vocabulary as

well as a history outline of the development of comics. Second chapter focuses on the

visual language by examining some key aspects of the visual language in the graphic

novel Maus. The first subchapter is devoted to the animal metaphor which is the most

eminent visual feature of the novel. Next two subchapters deal with the drawing style

and the use of photographs in the novel. The fourth subchapter examines the specifics of

time in comics and how it applies to Maus. The last subchapter deals with

autobiographical comics and analyzes Maus as an autobiography.

Resumé v češtině
Tato práce se zabývá grafickým románem Maus od Arta Spiegelmana. Hlavním

cílem této práce je analyzovat vizuální struktury, které tvoří vizuální jazyk grafického

románu. První kapitola obsahuje definici komiksu, vysvětlení základní komiksové

terminologie a historický přehled vývoje komiksu. Druhá kapitola se soustředí na

vizuální jazyk a zkoumá klíčové aspekty vizuálního jazyka v grafickém románu Maus.

První podkapitola je věnována zvířecí metafoře, která je nejvýraznějším vizuálním

prvkem v románu Maus. Následující dvě kapitoly se zabývají kresebným stylem a

použitím fotografií. Čtvrtá podkapitola zkoumá specifika zobrazování času v komiksech

a v grafickém románu Maus. Poslední podkapitola se zabývá autobiografickým

komiksem a pohlíží na román Maus jako na autobiografii.

47