Maus: Can a Graphic Novel Be a Literary Non-fiction?

When I started the vehemently-hyped comic book, Maus, I was pessimistically asking myself why a work with such simple comic drawing techniques has aroused so much applause from such a various range of readers, an enormous group of whom are not even comic fans. As I delved further into the story I realized that the key to its success was not the technique itself, but the story and the medium through which it was told. Maus’ narrative is not only dialogic, using both the textual and the visual dimensions, but cross-discursive. At many times in the comic, these two dimensions oppose each other. While in the aural aspect, Spiegleman clings to authenticity, he prefers an absolute mediation in the visual compartment. The apparent dissonance between the two dimensions has led to the creation of a polyphonic or multi-voiced literary work, a comic book which uses its medium’s potentials in the best way possible.

I believe Maus articulates the graphic novel as a meta-genre, parodying the other more respected erudite genres such as biographical non-fiction. Maus was the first graphic novel to win Pulitzer award, probably due to its humanistic content which distils the grievances of the Jews in the holocaust, thereby it anchors and repurposes the genre graphic novel previously thought of as comical, fictitious and escapist. It consolidates the weaknesses recurrent in precedent comic books, rendering a vivacious, realistic account of a holocaust survivor’s life and the artist’s conflict with the fact that he is the survivor’s son. Emphasizing on the meta-fictional aspects of itself, Maus can be perceived as a Kunstlerroman, a literary work which delineates the life of the artist and his progress. Thus Maus is not only the story of the survivor but also the story of the survivor’s son whose creation of Maus is in itself a re-enactment of the past in the present time.

It is most unfortunate that Vladek, Spiegleman’s father, did not live long enough to see his son’s creation and its immense success. Yet, Maus lives on and so does Vladek and all the characters for whom we felt in the graphic novel.