The Complete MausART SPIEGELMAN

David Moore, 2015

Outline

• Context

• Style

• Characters

• Themes

• Different interpretations of the text

• Essay questions

• Final tips

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Context

• Centuries of anti-Jewish sentiment in Europe

• Nazi party came to power in 1933 in Germany

• Germany invaded Poland in 1939, WWII began

• Jews isolated in ghettoes, and later in concentration camps

• WWII ends in 1945, Jews disperse around the world

• Many survivors of concentration camps never overcome the mental trauma

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Style• Graphic novel

• Biography and Autobiography

• Anthropomorphised characters

• Animal motif

• Written language• Dialogue• Narration

• Visual language• Drawings• Symbols

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Style

• Three layers of narrative• Europe• USA (pre publication of part 1)• USA (between part 1 and part 2)

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Written language

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• Dialogue

• Narration

Visual language

• Drawings

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Visual language

• Symbolism

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Character – Vladek (The survivor?)

• Hard-worker• Tinsmith• English tutor• Shoemaker• General “labour” assignments

• Determined

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Character – Vladek (The survivor?)

• Neurotic

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Character – Vladek (The survivor?)

• Resourceful

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Character – Vladek (The survivor?)

• Miserly

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Character – Art (Like father, like son?)

• Neurotic, but self-aware

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Character – Art (Like father, like son?)

• Patient, up to a point

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Character – Anja (The missing piece…)

• Vulnerable

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Character – Anja (The missing piece…)

• Beloved, but resented

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Other family members

• Mala

• Francoise

• Richieu

What role do these people play in shaping Art and Vladek?

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Themes

• Loyalty and Betrayal

• Guilt

• Love

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Themes – Loyalty and Betrayal• Betrayal

• Germans betrayed the Jews who put their trust in them.• Poles betrayed Jews• Jews betrayed other Jews.

• Loyalty• Anja and Vladek survive because their friends refuse to betray them.• Vladek helps out a fellow Jew who is starving.

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Themes - Guilt

• Survivor’s guilt• Vladek feels guilty about surviving• Art feels guilty about not being at Auschwitz

• Art’s guilt about the way he depicted his father

• Art’s guilt about the way he treated his mother

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Themes - Love

• Love for family• Maus is a tribute from Art to his father• Vladek truly loves his sons, even if he shows it in odd ways

• Romantic love

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Differing interpretations of the text

Maus shows humanity at its worst

VS

Maus shows that people can overcome tragedy

Maus is a poignant tribute from a son to his father

VS

Art Spiegelman exploits his father’s suffering in Maus

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Differing interpretations of the text

Maus shows humanity at its worst• evil• indifference

David Moore, 2015

Differing interpretations of the text

Maus shows that people can overcome tragedy

• Vladek survives• Starvation• Exhausting manual labour• Beatings• Humiliation• Typhus• Separation from his wife• The death of his first-born son• His wife’s suicide

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Differing interpretations of the text

Maus is a poignant tribute from a son to his father

• Art portrays Vladek is a survivor

• And a loving father

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Differing interpretations of the text

Art Spiegelman exploits his father’s suffering in Maus

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VCAA examination questions

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Sample examination question

1. The ideas, characters and themes constructed by the author and presented in the selected text

2014 VCAA examination

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Sample examination question

2. The structures, features and conventions used by authors to construct meaning in a range of literary texts

2014 VCAA examination

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Sample examination question

3. The ways in which authors express or imply a point of view and values

2014 VATE sample examination

i. ‘Spiegelman shows us that trauma in one generation can haunt the next.’Discuss.

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Sample examination question

4. The ways in which readers’ interpretations of text differ and why

Cambridge Checkpoints VCE text guide – The Complete Maus

6. ‘Art Spiegelman deals with the Holocaust and his own father’s suffering in a flippant way in his graphic novel, Maus.’ Do you agree?

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Finding resources

• Commercial study guides (Insight, Neap, Cambridge University Press)

• The Age, text talk “Many layers of Maus”

• Podcast, Sunday School withLibbi Gorr (774 ABC Victoria)

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Final tips

• Read/revisit the VCAA Examination report

• Practise planning essay topics• What type of essay question is being asked?• What are the key terms?

• Practise writing under timed conditions

• Go beyond dialogue in your essay• Discuss drawings and symbols

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Good Luck!David Moore, 2015

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Character – Vladek (The survivor?)

• Pragmatic• Handed food to a Kapo (p222)• Befriended a Nazi guard

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