Transcript the author AND a character MAUS: an introduction Individually

the author AND a
character
MAUS: an introduction
Individually:
1. Answer questions 1-3
2. Read & Annotate the
bottom
As a Group:
Discuss the answers to the
questions on the back. You do not
have to write anything down.
MAUS: an introduction
“I co-authored this book with Hitler”
–Art Spiegelman
America was using propaganda, too.
"Mickey Mouse is the most miserable ideal ever
revealed... Healthy emotions tell every independent
young man and every honorable youth that the
dirty and filth-covered vermin, the greatest bacteria
carrier in the animal kingdom, cannot be the ideal
type of animal... Away with the Jewish brutalization
of the people! Down with Mickey Mouse! Wear the
Swastika cross!"
- German newspaper article, mid-1930's
EXAMPLE of Spiegelman’s “Inspiration”
So, Spiegelman uses “anti-semitic” images to ATTACK anti-semitism.
SWASTIKA (symbol: _______)
Juxtaposed: What effect is produced? Why
would the author do this?
MICE [symbol: (a negative one) Jews]
What is it?
When symbols are used to tell a second story
(besides the main plot)….
The second story usually has a message (or
moral)
So in MAUS….
The mice and cats are symbols….
What second story do these symbols tell?
English Literary Styles
Old English [450-1100:Beowulf]
Middle English & Medieval [1100-1500: King Arthur Tales]
Renaissance [1500-1660: Shakespeare]
Neo-Classical [1660-1798: John Locke, Newton, Bacon, gothic]
Romanticism [1798-1837: Keats, Byron, Shelley]
Victorian [1837-1901:Charles Dickens, Bronte sisters; TranscendentalistsThoreau , Emerson, Whitman; Lewis Carroll]
Modernism [1900s: Freud, Kipling, HG Wells, Darwin, Virginia Woolf, TS Eliot]
Post-Modernism [WWII +: Truman Capote, Spiegelman, Hunter S.
Thompson]
*the author makes you (the reader) aware of him/herself
*mixes genres --- that is called “pastiche”[a patchwork of
genres]
*the author writes about writing --- that is called
“metafiction”
*those in power create the reality for others [a main
subject]
Turn to the Prologue
WHAT IT IS:
~a form of dipping into the past
~the purpose- to serve as a “fractal” (an
example of the whole) of the entire book
~a “normal” childhood moment when Vladek’s
relationship with Art(Artie) is revealed
My Question to You:
Based on this fractal, what is their relationship
like?
Turn to the page 12
Read the Q’s, Examine the Page, Discuss, & Report Back to me (4 min)
1. Where are we (the setting)? Be specific.
2. What does Vladek get on and what is he
doing?
3. What do you notice specifically about the
pictures?
Page 12 Answers
1. Artie’s childhood room (his room from the past).
2. Exercise bike… he’s pedaling… he’s talking about
the past… he’s TRAVELING back into the past.
3. Vladek spans multiple panels; concentration camp
tattoo; bottom right, JUXTAPOSITION between Old
Vladek and Young Vladek (present and past).
Pages 13-18
Read the question, examine the pages, discuss, & report back
(4 minutes)
1. What 3 main things should we make sure we know
about this set of pages? In other words, what are
the 3 most important things to know. [Evaluate]
Page 19
Read the questions, examine the pages, discuss, & report back
(4 minutes)
1. What does Vladek do on this page?
2. What do we indirectly learn about his character?
3. Why is he doing what he is doing?
Page 23
Read the questions,
examine the page,
discuss, & report back
(2 minutes)
1. Cite evidence of Post-Modernism.
2. Cite evidence of irony.
3. We’ve been talking about ethics…
how are Art’s ethics tested here and
how does he respond?
Page 23
Answers
1. We are made aware of the writing
process~ the “author” has made
himself KNOWN as the author. They
are TALKING about the story we are
reading.
2. “…more real…more human.”
3. He defies his dad’s request. He
lies to his dad.