MAUS Analysis

Maus is a graphic novel that was published after the boom of superhero comics in the 1960s. These 1960s comics were the first to humanize superhero characters by attributing them with specific trauma narratives and giving them dark pasts. If we are to place Maus in this history of superhero comics, what kind of a (super)hero comic is it? Who is the heroVladek, Artie, another character? What kind of a hero is s/he? What kind of power does s/he possess? Choose one character and elaborate on the type of hero in Maus. You do not need to answer all the questions.

Try to do as much close reading as possible. You will be marked down for lack of textual evidecne if you do not describe the visual elements. For a good example, refer back to the analysis of the opening panel in Lecture 1. What are the panels depicting? How do these depictions support your thesis? What’s going on between the panels? How do the visual elements add to the interiority of the characters? 

For citations, you should use the MLA style for multiple volumes:

. . . as Quintilian wrote in Institutio Oratoria (1: 14-17).  *1 is the volume number.   

Great resource for citations is the Purdue Writing Lab: https://owl.purdue.edu.