The Book Thief

Maus

LITERATURE IN ENGLISH III

2021
 Guide for class discussion

1. Compare Maus and The Book Thief considering the memories presented
and the perspectives adopted.
2. Is it possible to observe representations of trauma in the texts?
3. Can they be considered trauma narratives?
4. Discuss narrative voices and characterization
5. Meet the authors here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7B8ioiZz7M&t=192s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b4i0efaw1A
 Then discuss their relationship with Holocaust memories
Postmemory

Listen to Marianne Hirsh as she defines the concept of postmemory.

 How does Hirsch characterize this phenomenon?

 In what ways does the concept illuminate the discussion of the texts?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0XdO1EEGdk
 Postmemory and
the Comics

 Look at this page from Spiegelman’s

Maus. Discuss the ways in which the story

is narrated in this medium (Chute).

 In what ways does this example reveal the

a concern with representation?

The Comics (Chute)

 Graphic novels vs graphic narrative.

 McCloud (1993) defines comics as “juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate
sequence, intended to convey information and/or produce an aesthetic response in the
viewer” (454)

 Harvey (2001): “it seems to me that the essential characteristic of comics, the thing that
distinguishes it from other kinds of pictorial narratives – is the incorporation of verbal
content.” (454)
Spiegleman, MetaMaus 165