Generational Trauma In Maus I And II

Originally coined by Marianne Hirsch, the term post-memory describes the transmission of experiences to the immediate descendants of people who experienced a generational collective trauma. Despite the fact that the 2nd generation did not experience the impact directly, they grew up surrounded by “pain, depression, and dissociation of persons who have witnessed and survived mass historical trauma”(Hirsch 112). Growing up in an environment where family dynamics are deeply affected by collective trauma, it is inevitable that generational trauma will be transmitted alongside the memories.

Art Spiegelman brilliantly portrayed the concept of post-memory in his graphic novels Maus I & II. As a direct descendant of a survivor, Spiegelman was able

In the panel showing Vladic hiding during the holocaust, everything in the background is dark and shaded and Spiegelman emphasizes the emotion on Vladics's face by adding eyebrows and turning down his eyes. In the panel showing the interview between father and son, the background is completely white and nothing is shaded in. In that panel, Artie is crossing his legs laying in a comfortable position facing the trench (Maus I). The minor details and slight differences in artistic styles could have been used by Spiegelman to emphasize the disconnect between the comfort in Artie’s life in comparison to the struggles his father faced. This can be perceived as Spiegleman subconsciously portraying the guilt he feels for not being able to resonate with his father. This guilt continues to grow as he learns more about his father’s

He also has his fair share of first-hand trauma. In Maus I, Spiegleman explicitly portrays his greif and guilt relating to his mother's death with “Prisoner On Hell Planet”. In the beginning panels, Artie shares that he had just come out of a metal hospital indicating he was struggling psychologically even before his mother’s suicide. When he comes home one weekend, he finds out about his mothers suicide and feels guilty and almost immediately blames himself. When his relatives came to visit him he imagined them blaming him for this outcome. As his thoughts overwhelm him, the art style gets more dramatic until the Artie in the comic is driven to a state of insanity. “Prisoner on Hell Planet” exemplifies the extremity of the trauma that Artie faced and it shows that he coped with his trauma by drawing this comic strip. This comic is vital to the meaning of Maus as a whole since it shows Artie to be a first-hand victim of psychological trauma in addition to the transmitted trauma he received through stories. This also brings to light the fact that growing up as a 2nd generation decendentent to a family that experienced such trauma, it is likely will see pain, depression, and dissasociation around them causing them to develop their own psychological trauma (Hirsch