Maus and The Holocaust:
An Investigation of Memory in Literature
Colin Edgerton
Josh Brown says of Art Spiegelman’s Maus,
Maus makes an even greater contribution as a work of oral history by interrogating the limitations of our techniques for recording experience, and by engaging the problematic of memory as evidence.
Maus is presented to the reader in a linear form, as a story remembered from start to finish, in a generally chronological fashion. However, Spiegelman incorporates into the narrative glimpses of his struggle to shape his father’s nebulous story into a coherent narrative -- bestowing upon his work an air of self-consciousness. This self-consciousness of form is elucidated by Spiegelman:
For a while I thought maybe I should do the book in a more Joycean way. Then I realized that, ultimately, that was a literary fabrication just as much as using a more nineteenth century approach to telling a story, and that it would actually get more in the way of getting things across than a more linear approach.
This site invites you to explore the relationship between memory and literature, by juxtaposing a strictly transcribed oral account of the Holocaust with several written accounts, including Maus. It may be read in a linear or non-linear fashion by choosing the titled links below or by following the [NEXT] links sequentially.
Memory in Literature: Strains of the Story
Memory in Literature: The Narrator’s Chronology
Memory in Literature: The Writer's Form
Memory in Literature: Primary Censorship