Art Spiegelman's Maus is a Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel memoir looking at his father's experience through the Holocaust and surviving Auschwitz. In this module we will be looking at the graphic novel as a medium for literature.
Learner outcomes:
- Students will be able to explain why we study painful historical periods and events.
- Students will be able to define, in their own words, “prejudice” and explain the degree to which, if any, the representation of the characters as different kinds of animals represents an example of prejudice.
- Students will be able to identify one positive and one negative characteristic of the same member (any member) of the Spiegelman family, and explain the basis for the identifications.
- Students will be able to define, in their own words, “memory,” and will identify/discuss an example where memory can have a positive impact and an example where memory can have a negative impact on the individual.
- Students will be able to explain, in their own words, the difference between “history” and “memory,” and discuss examples from the memoir that represent two different obstacles to making “history” and “memory,” in the book, one and the same.
- Students will be able, in their own words, to define and distinguish between “oral history,” “memoir,” and “novels,” explaining which of these three literary voices Maus represents.
- Students will be able to identify and discuss a positive and a negative example in Maus of “testimonies” as sources of history.
Key Terms:
- National Socialism
- Totalitarianism
- Fascism
- Holocaust
- Pogrom
- Prejudice
- Survivor's Guilt