Shaheed Bala

Professor Natalia

English 102

8 April 2022

Bibliography Assignment

Article #1:

Wilner, Arlene Fish. ‘“Happy, Happy Ever after’: Story and History in Art Spiegelman’s

‘Maus.’” The Journal of Narrative Technique, vol. 27, no. 2, Department of English

Language and Literature, Eastern Michigan University, 1997, pp. 171-189. JSTOR,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/30225464.

Thesis:

“The uniqueness of Spiegelman's achievement is, I would suggest, largely a function of zeugmatic

strategies that yoke traditionally disjunct forms and conventions. The use of such strategies evokes

the perception that the coherence encouraged by figuration-analogy, metaphor, and other sorts of

juxtaposition - is simultaneously necessary and impossible.” (Wilner 171)

Summary and Evaluation:

In this article by Arlene Fish Wilner, the author explores Spiegelman’s strategies

encouraged by figurative elements to discuss “the story of the Holocaust as recalled by Vladek

and recorded by Art, the story of how the story came to be, the story of how the artist comes to

terms with the meaning of the stories he is telling.” (173). Wilner points out the use of animals to

represent ethnic groups and “the figuration of, on the other hand, prey and predator,” (174)

which portrays the use of Germans as cats and Jews as mice. The Jews and the Germans have
mouse heads and cat heads respectively and they both have human bodies which shows they are

not necessarily animals but humans with human attributes. The article discusses the use of

metaphor in the graphic novel, “Spiegelman incorporates a critique of the power and limits

metaphor into the structure of the narrative,” (Wilner 175) in both good and bad ways. Wilner

portrays figurative elements describing the trials Spiegelman's father endured as a Jewish refugee

in concentration camps, his difficulties adapting to American life, and the life after the war

which Vladek stopped narrating and they lived “happily, happy ever after.” (Wilner 184).

This article provides good points but the arguments of the figurative elements are

disorganized and difficult to understand. The author of the article should also have more concise

arguments for the autobiography of Vladek and Art, as Art Spiegelman takes notes of Vladek’s

life and the difficulties he faced as a prisoner, and the disagreements between them.
Article #2:

Rosen, Alan. “The Language of Survival: English As Metaphor in Spiegelman’s Maus.”

Prooftexts, vol. 15, no. 3, 1995, pp. 249-262. JSTOR,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/20689427.

Thesis: “This essay will elaborate the strategies that Spiegelman employs throughout Maus to

effect this reformulation and revaluation of English.” (Rosen 251)

Summary and Evaluation:

In this article, Alan Rosen assesses the importance and reappraisal of Maus in English as

a depiction of the Holocaust. The Holocaust took place in a non-English speaking country but the

novel is narrated in English as the main language. The main character, Vladek is also not a native

speaker of the language. Rosen claims that Vladek’s knowledge of English as a language serves

as an importance in initiating the relationship with his wife Anja. He mentions, “Anja and her

cousin spoke in English to protect their secret; Vladek's capacity to "know" English comes as a

surprise” (Rosen 251). This point not only displays his ability to understand and speak English

but to also decipher hidden messages or secrets as means of English. He also claims the English

language as a language of survival during the Holocaust. He mentions that “English returns to

the foreground, serving as a form of knowledge that can generate extraordinary transformations”

(Rosen 253). At the concentration camp, the power of the language can determine survival. For

example, when Vladek got protected by a kapo he taught how to speak the language. Rosen also

argues that Art Spiegelman narrates Vladek’s survival in immigrant English but makes other

immigrants’ English fluent in the language, which frames Vladek’s narrative by making English

the presiding language.

 Through this article, Rosen provides points for the significance of the use of language to

describe the Holocaust in which English plays a crucial role. I believe the article provides good

points and thoroughly observes the essence of Vladek's narrative of English as the broken

language of the immigrant and the unlimited power of English in Maus. By highlighting

examples from both Maus I and Maus II, and also providing and describing panels from the

novel, Rosen proves English as a language of survival in the novel. He also proves that Vladek's

English makes it the most foreign language in the book, conveying the foreignness of the

Holocaust.