LITERATURE MEETS HISTORY: COUNTER-DISCOURSIVE "COMIX"

LINDA HUTCHEON
1999 Anglia. Zeitschrift für englische Philologie  
Art Spiegelman's graphic novels or "comix" books, Maus: A Survivor's Tale (I and II), constitute an exemplary postmodern example of the complex border-crossing of popular culture and high art, on the one hand, and autobiography, history and fictionalized narrative, on the other. Their animal allegory and self-reflexive comic book form both distance and proximate the horrific realities of the Holocaust story they tell in both visual and verbal media. While enacting postmodern challenges to the
more » ... atus of historical "fact" and evidence, Maus nevertheless brings the past and its witnessing to life in powerful ways that have won it a worldwide readership.
doi:10.1515/angl.1999.117.1.4 fatcat:2gud2gyeuneldhxwxrcuf27ebu