Mauschwitz: imaginary displacements

Abstract

Maus, a graphic novel by Art Spiegelman, was successful with both the public and the critique, winning the Pulitzer Literature Prize in 1992, although it has as its conductor line the story of a Jew that survived the concentration camps. In spite of this surprising and unusual theme, Spiegelman chooses to represent his characters as animals, depicting the Jews as mice, the same image used by the nazi propaganda to associate the Jews to filthiness, dejecta or plague to be exterminated. In this article, we intend to present the various displacements, not only formal but also in content, which allowed Spiegelman to construct this unique narrative.