Memory in Literature
The Writer’s Form
Art Spiegelman’s position, as the author of Maus, is unique insofar as the actual story that he tells is not of his own conception. Nevertheless, in transforming his Father’s story into Maus’s graphic form, Spiegelmann made crucial decisions in the manipulation of his father’s story, decisions which make Maus as much Spiegelman’s own work as if he had created the story himself.
Spiegelmann employs a self-conscious form in transcribing Vladek’s story. This form allows the reader to perceive the editorial decisions that Spiegelman made in transforming his Father’s recorded testimony into a comic-book style narrative. In particular, Spiegelman struggled with the decision of how to depict certain characters as animals.
Francois: What are you doing?
Art: Trying to figure out how to draw you.
Francois: Want me to pose?
Art: I mean in my book. What kind of animal should I make you? (11)
As he tries to depict differing nationalities as different species of animals, Spiegelman makes crucial editorial decisions which suggest that every character of that particular nationality has the characteristics of the animal that he has chosen. More importantly, beyond simply depicting each nationality as a separate species, Spiegelman allows the reader to see how difficult this process was. His inability to choose what creature to depict his wife as speaks to the broader question of whether any individual can be judged simply as a member of a nationality. Spiegelman articulates the difficulty of his task in a broader sense in the following quote.
Art: There’s so much I’ll never be able to understand or visualize. I mean, Reality is too complex for comics . . . so much has to be left out or distorted.
Francoise: Just keep it honest, honey.
Art: See what I mean . . . in real life you’d never have let me talk this long without interrupting. (16)
In this passage from Maus II, not only does Spiegelman recognize the limitations of his medium in depicting his father’s story, but he also recognizes his own role as manipulator of the original story. Spiegelman essentially warns the reader that what they are reading was a genuine Holocaust testimony, only before he set about putting it into graphic form.