Maus paper topic possibilities
I will give out a copy of this out in class tomorrow, too. We will discuss some of the topics over the next few weeks, but you may want to look at them for some ideas for your close reading. As I mentioned in the syllabus, I encourage you to formulate your own paper topics, based upon what interests you, what questions you ask as you do the reading. We will work on turning these ideas into paper topics in class soon. Happy reading!
Jenni
English 1001, Essay # 1:
Art Spiegelman, Maus I-II, A Survivor’s Tale (4 pages)
Although you should choose only one topic to write on, you can use all of these topics as a guide to help you read the text more attentively. Once you have selected your topic, mark all the passages where you encounter relevant evidence. Some topics are more broad than others, but all of them will require you to provide further focus through your final selection of evidence. The questions posed in each topic are meant to provoke you to think more deeply, but are not intended as simple blueprints for your paper. Essays should be organized around close readings of at least 3-4 significant and/or representative passages or frames (including text and images), and must follow the format outlined in the course syllabus. Papers that are not proofread for spelling and stylistic errors will be returned. Don’t forget to give your paper a title.
1. Spiegelman's Maus I begins with a quote by Hitler: “The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human.” Make a case for or against the animal imagery in Spiegelman's Maus I-II reproducing the racial logic of the Nazi regime. To answer, consider the degree to which the text’s use of animals resembles or critiques the Nazi belief that particular populations have an essential, unchanging character, or can be ranked as higher or lower on the chain of being. On what basis does Spiegelman appear to choose the animals he does? How does his use of animal masks, and his depiction of “actual” animals—dogs, rats, flies, lice, and so on—fit in, and how do the different versions of animal representation play off one another?
2. In what ways does Spiegelman's use of the comic strip genre in Maus I-II complement or conflict with the text’s biographical, autobiographical, and historical missions? Is Spiegelman more interested in providing us with an accurate record of the past or in portraying the constructed nature of narrative, and how compatible are these goals? Some issues you should consider: the representation/reliability of memory; the use of multiple time frames; the shifts in point of view; the relation between reality and fantasy; the distinction between “real” photographs (I, 100) and drawings. Make a case for or against the Washington Post reviewer’s claim that Maus’s success was “impossible to achieve in any medium but comics.”
3. The back flaps of Spiegelman's Maus I-II depict the author in a mouse-mask at his drawing table with a poster of the underground comic, Raw, behind him, and an Auschwitz guard tower and crematorium visible through his window. How does this complex image help us to understand Artie’s attempt to come to grips with his father’s past and his own present? How does the strategy (both visual and verbal) that he employs to process past experience in “Prisoner On the Hell Planet” compare to the one(s) he uses in other parts of the narrative? Why does Artie want to retell his father’s story, and how does it help him understand his own? In what ways does he “translate” that story, and with what effects? Does Artie become a participant in his father’s story, and if so, what kind? To what extent does Artie bridge the distance between past and present, and what obstacles remain?
4. By turns, Vladek Spiegelman seems to be the hero and the villain of Maus I-II (the last word of the Volume I, uttered by Artie about Vladek, is “murderer,” 159). Analyze Vladek’s character, as it is reflected through his own eyes and those of his son. In what senses has Spiegelman offered a portrait of “the survivor,” and how does the discussion in Maus II (44-5) complicate the term? What are Vladek’s strengths and weaknesses (and are these sometimes the same thing)? Is Artie right to be worried that through Vladek, he has simply reproduced “the racist caricature of the miserly old Jew” (I, 131)? What kind of judgment does Artie pass on his father, finally, and does (should) the reader judge him more harshly or kindly? What does Spiegelman gain by telling the story of the Holocaust primarily through the perspective of a single individual?
5. Why do you think Spiegelman dedicated Maus I to his mother, Anja (I, 8)? What roles does she play, both as a presence and as an absence, in the two volumes? How does Spiegelman depict her changing psychology, and how does it compare to Vladek’s as a portrait of “the survivor”? (Remember that Artie also calls Anja a murderer at one point [I, 103].) Does the text give consistent or conflicting views of her ( for instance, in the main text versus in “Prisoner On the Hell Planet”), and with what effects and implications? What are the potential limitations of perceiving Anja almost exclusively through Vladek’s eyes? If the ghost of Anja haunts Spiegelman's Maus, what sort of a spirit is it, and in what ways does it serve to keep the past alive, or help put it to rest?
6. To what extent should Spiegelman's comic book be considered “comic”—that is, humorous—and how do its comic elements square with its very serious subject matter? To begin with, take inventory of Maus’s comic devices—dialogue, illustration, situation, and so on. How prevalent are such devices and what makes them funny? What kinds of effects do they have locally (in particular scenes), and globally (for shaping our sense of the story)? Beyond providing, for instance, some comic relief, do these elements trivialize the Holocaust? Or do they (alternatively or additionally) serve more complex ends?
Jenni
English 1001, Essay # 1:
Art Spiegelman, Maus I-II, A Survivor’s Tale (4 pages)
Although you should choose only one topic to write on, you can use all of these topics as a guide to help you read the text more attentively. Once you have selected your topic, mark all the passages where you encounter relevant evidence. Some topics are more broad than others, but all of them will require you to provide further focus through your final selection of evidence. The questions posed in each topic are meant to provoke you to think more deeply, but are not intended as simple blueprints for your paper. Essays should be organized around close readings of at least 3-4 significant and/or representative passages or frames (including text and images), and must follow the format outlined in the course syllabus. Papers that are not proofread for spelling and stylistic errors will be returned. Don’t forget to give your paper a title.
1. Spiegelman's Maus I begins with a quote by Hitler: “The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human.” Make a case for or against the animal imagery in Spiegelman's Maus I-II reproducing the racial logic of the Nazi regime. To answer, consider the degree to which the text’s use of animals resembles or critiques the Nazi belief that particular populations have an essential, unchanging character, or can be ranked as higher or lower on the chain of being. On what basis does Spiegelman appear to choose the animals he does? How does his use of animal masks, and his depiction of “actual” animals—dogs, rats, flies, lice, and so on—fit in, and how do the different versions of animal representation play off one another?
2. In what ways does Spiegelman's use of the comic strip genre in Maus I-II complement or conflict with the text’s biographical, autobiographical, and historical missions? Is Spiegelman more interested in providing us with an accurate record of the past or in portraying the constructed nature of narrative, and how compatible are these goals? Some issues you should consider: the representation/reliability of memory; the use of multiple time frames; the shifts in point of view; the relation between reality and fantasy; the distinction between “real” photographs (I, 100) and drawings. Make a case for or against the Washington Post reviewer’s claim that Maus’s success was “impossible to achieve in any medium but comics.”
3. The back flaps of Spiegelman's Maus I-II depict the author in a mouse-mask at his drawing table with a poster of the underground comic, Raw, behind him, and an Auschwitz guard tower and crematorium visible through his window. How does this complex image help us to understand Artie’s attempt to come to grips with his father’s past and his own present? How does the strategy (both visual and verbal) that he employs to process past experience in “Prisoner On the Hell Planet” compare to the one(s) he uses in other parts of the narrative? Why does Artie want to retell his father’s story, and how does it help him understand his own? In what ways does he “translate” that story, and with what effects? Does Artie become a participant in his father’s story, and if so, what kind? To what extent does Artie bridge the distance between past and present, and what obstacles remain?
4. By turns, Vladek Spiegelman seems to be the hero and the villain of Maus I-II (the last word of the Volume I, uttered by Artie about Vladek, is “murderer,” 159). Analyze Vladek’s character, as it is reflected through his own eyes and those of his son. In what senses has Spiegelman offered a portrait of “the survivor,” and how does the discussion in Maus II (44-5) complicate the term? What are Vladek’s strengths and weaknesses (and are these sometimes the same thing)? Is Artie right to be worried that through Vladek, he has simply reproduced “the racist caricature of the miserly old Jew” (I, 131)? What kind of judgment does Artie pass on his father, finally, and does (should) the reader judge him more harshly or kindly? What does Spiegelman gain by telling the story of the Holocaust primarily through the perspective of a single individual?
5. Why do you think Spiegelman dedicated Maus I to his mother, Anja (I, 8)? What roles does she play, both as a presence and as an absence, in the two volumes? How does Spiegelman depict her changing psychology, and how does it compare to Vladek’s as a portrait of “the survivor”? (Remember that Artie also calls Anja a murderer at one point [I, 103].) Does the text give consistent or conflicting views of her ( for instance, in the main text versus in “Prisoner On the Hell Planet”), and with what effects and implications? What are the potential limitations of perceiving Anja almost exclusively through Vladek’s eyes? If the ghost of Anja haunts Spiegelman's Maus, what sort of a spirit is it, and in what ways does it serve to keep the past alive, or help put it to rest?
6. To what extent should Spiegelman's comic book be considered “comic”—that is, humorous—and how do its comic elements square with its very serious subject matter? To begin with, take inventory of Maus’s comic devices—dialogue, illustration, situation, and so on. How prevalent are such devices and what makes them funny? What kinds of effects do they have locally (in particular scenes), and globally (for shaping our sense of the story)? Beyond providing, for instance, some comic relief, do these elements trivialize the Holocaust? Or do they (alternatively or additionally) serve more complex ends?
posted by Jenni Lovato at 9:37 PM
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