秘密研究所

Graphic Novel Picked for 2016-17 Common Read

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Posted on April 8, 2016

Joy Washington

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The 秘密研究所鈥檚 Common Read/Common World committee of faculty, students and staff has selected the Pulitzer Prize-winning 鈥淭he Complete Maus鈥� as the 2016-2017 common reading book for the University.

The author of 鈥淭he Complete Maus,鈥� Art Spiegelman is a contributing editor and artist for The New Yorker and co-founder/editor of Raw, an acclaimed magazine of avant-garde comics and graphics. His drawings and prints have been exhibited in museums and galleries in the United States and abroad.

鈥溾�橳he Complete Maus鈥欌�� offers an incredible opportunity to partner with various community organizations to extend our connection of the program in Mobile,鈥� noted Krista Harrell, committee member and former co-chair. 鈥淭he renowned work also poses amazing curricular and co-curricular linkages that are interdisciplinary in nature. It continues our efforts to focus on civil rights and social justice."

According to the Wall Street Journal, 鈥淭he Complete Maus鈥� is acclaimed as 鈥漷he most affecting and successful narrative which has ever been done about the Holocaust.鈥� The New Yorker calls it  鈥渢he first masterpiece in comic book history.鈥�

鈥淢aus鈥� is a haunting tale-within-a-tale that features a harrowing story of survival, which is woven into the author鈥檚 account of his tortured relationship with his aging father.          

Against the backdrop of guilt brought by survival, they stage a normal life of small arguments and unhappy visits. This astonishing re-telling of our world鈥檚 grisliest event is a story of survival, not only of Spiegelman鈥檚 father but of the children who survive the survivors.

Dr. Susan McCready, co-chair of the committee, is pleased this book has been selected.

鈥�'Maus鈥� is a hybrid genre; part autobiography, part Holocaust narrative, part family memoir, all told in graphic novel format. The core of the book is the survival story of Spiegelman鈥檚 father, Vladek, a Polish Jew who had been deported to Auschwitz,鈥� McCready explained. 鈥淏ut the story is framed by the author/artist鈥檚 attempts to learn about his parent鈥檚 Holocaust experience, and by his own coming to terms with this trauma and its long-lasting aftermath, including his mother鈥檚 suicide in 1968.鈥�  Serialized from 1980-1991, "Maus" became, in 1992, the first graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize.

McCready also said 鈥淢aus鈥� in 1997 was the first graphic novel she read.

鈥淎t that time I wasn鈥檛 really aware that comic books were addressing such important material or that they could do so with such nuance and complexity,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 think this selection is going to open a lot of minds, and I'm thrilled to have the chance to share it with students and the community.鈥�

James Contratto also is serving as co-chair of the committee.

Common Read/Common World is a University-wide partnership between Academic Affairs and Student Affairs.  

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