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Maus (Maus, A Survivor's Tale) by Art Spiegelman (U.S.A.) 1973-1991, Einaudi Editions
Written over more than 10 years of work by Art Spiegelman and published over three decades, "Maus" is probably the most famous, if not the most important, graphic novel of all time. Welcomed from its release with unanimous acclaim from both critics and the public, it has been translated into over 20 languages and has received the most important international awards in the comic world: from the Angoulême to the Eisner, but above all the Pulitzer in 1992.
Through the memories of his father, a survivor of the Auschwitz death camp, the author reconstructs, using the flashback technique and with a narrative plot that unfolds between the present (the '70s) and the subjective (yet deeply documented) reconstruction of events that occurred between '35 and '45, the drama of the Holocaust. All of this without sparing touching autobiographical references that contributed to his decision to venture into the treacherous terrain of the historical reconstruction of an event still, of course, debated today: and if the difficult relationship with his father, never completely emerged from the psychological trauma he experienced, permeates the whole book, Spiegelman does not hide that the real spark was his mother's suicide, also a survivor, which occurred when he was in his twenties.
A spark that ignites the entire narrative engine of this graphic novel: the survivor's guilt, masterfully summed up in the phrase (second part, second chapter, thirty-first vignette) "Yes. Life always sides with life, and ultimately the victims are blamed. But the BEST did not survive, nor did they die. It was all RANDOM!"
Drawn in a black and white rich in nuances and details, the work is divided into two distinct parts, originally published separately: "My Father Bleeds History" and "And Here My Troubles Began" dedicated respectively to Anja Spiegelman (the author's mother) and Richieu Spiegelman (his older brother who died in a death camp). The two sections do not present particular stylistic or narrative differences between them but were separated because they were completed almost ten years apart.
Besides its ethical merits, "Maus" was a true revelation for the almost caricature-like choice of Spiegelman to represent the protagonists not with real features but with animal likenesses, different according to various nationalities and ethnicities, humanized. Thus, Jews became mice, Germans cats, Poles pigs, and so on: needless to say, the intended final effect was a fluctuation between the dramatic pathos of the narrated events and an almost comic thrust caused by seeing "on stage" an artifice typical of the humorous genre comic, from Mickey Mouse onward. The added value is just this: despite this controversial and daring choice, Spiegelman never gives the impression of mocking the events but only tries to make the condemnation against the horrors represented by racial laws, mass exterminations, ethnic cleansing etc. more effective. The operation was brilliantly successful and his little mice managed to move emotions far more than other works considered more "cultured".
According to Spiegelman himself, the choice of ethnic-animal pairings was actually inspired by German sources of the time and in particular by an article in a propaganda newspaper where the sentence appeared (also reported in the graphic novel): "Mickey Mouse is the most miserable ideal ever created? Healthy feelings tell every independent young person and every dignified person that the dirty and foul parasite, the worst carrier of disease in the animal kingdom, cannot be the ideal type of animal? Enough with the Judaic brutalization of people! Down with Mickey Mouse! Wear the swastika!" Once mice were chosen for Jews, it was not difficult to find the suitable animal for Germans...
"Maus" is a moving but not mawkish work and has inspired countless comic authors around the world. In Italy, one can mention Dylan Dog issue No. 83 "Doktor Terror," but far from being placed only within the comic genre, it deserves to be considered a full-fledged literary masterpiece and it is not only the writer who affirms this; just read the opinion of the great Eco which I quote below.
Set aside prejudices, read it.
"Maus is a splendid story. It grips you and doesn't let go. When two of these little mice talk about love, you are moved, when they suffer you cry. Gradually, you enter this language of the old Eastern European family, in these little discourses made of sufferings, humor, daily quarrels, you are caught up by the slow and enchanting rhythm, and when the book is finished, you wait for the sequel with desperate nostalgia of having been excluded from a magical universe." (U.Eco)
C.G. (Girlanachronism)
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