Narrative Essay On Trauma In Maus

A DISCUSSION ON TRAUMA IN ART SPIEGELMAN´S MAUS
The first idea that would come to my mind if I were to answer the question of what Art Spiegelman´s Maus (1980) is about, would be: it is the story of a Jew surviving the horrors of the Holocaust. Nevertheless, it is not as pure and simple as that. Having a closer look at the work we realise that it is not only about the survival of its protagonist, but that the question of “survival” is just one more notion explored within the broader range of the issues tackled in Maus. The graphic novel addresses the issue of trauma and how it is passed on to future generations, which results in a past that is ever present. Therefore, Maus conveys the idea that a tragic event that occurred in the past has not

It could be seen as autobiographical, for the author is recounting his experience while writing the memories of his father. Notwithstanding, I will analyse it as a trauma narrative. My reason to do so is that I believe it is the trauma of three of the novel´s main protagonists which determines the way in which the story is written, and that Maus would not have seen the light of day provided it would not have been a real, traumatic experience. Hence, the biographical approach to the novel is possible but we should not forget that it is built around

Characters, especially Vladek, might be forgetting to mention important things, or making up others without even realising it. Thus, the issue of subjectivity is always there, as well as the idea that what we encounter in testimony writings is usually based on the experiences of an individual and cannot represent objectively the real history of what happened. In that sense, what we find in Maus is “just” the testimony of a person who has undergone a traumatic experience and is handling it down to his son, both making him aware of what happened to him and making his son feel guilty, sad, and also traumatised for what happened to his family, but not to