Three possible writing topics here – amongst many. Same rules as before: If something else engages you, that’s great, but please let me know where you want to head before you go there.
1. How does MAUS manifest what might be most challenging things about adapting a recorded narrative/dialogue into the graphic novel? Spiegelman has argued that
“the strength of commix lies in [its] synthetic ability to approximate a ‘mental language’ that is closer to actual human thought than either words or pictures alone.”
Where does the blending of word and image in comics form serve the needs of his material? Where does that blending become fraught and difficult?
2. What does remembering change? Is MAUS a “redemptive” act?
3. How does Spiegelman manipulate what we might think of as the dilemmas of storytelling? MAUS is a reworking in a particular genre of a remembrance of a remembrance. Any narrator has at least two choices: he or she can choose to make it seamless – i.e., present the story strictly and only in Vladek’s voice, where the past is artificially present — or draw the reader’s attention to all the ways in which his act of creation is mediated and contingent – i.e., remind readers that the artist/narrator has a point of view and experience and it may not be in absolute agreement with the commitment and interest of the subject. Spiegelman seems to opt for the latter. Why?
Try to push yourself towards the 2000 word mark this time around. If nothing else, push yourself beyond where you got the last time out. If you’ve not made use of secondary sources to this point, give it a go. Document in interlinear style, in footnotes or endnotes, and generate a bibliography.
Last Completed Projects
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