OfMausand memory: the structure of Art Spiegelman's graphic novel of the Holocaust

Abstract

Abstract In 1986, Lawrence Abbott concluded that ‘Comic art does possess the potential for the most serious and sophisticated literary and artistic expression, and we can only hope that future artists will bring the art form to full fruition’ (p. 176). Even as he was writing that, the movement toward a serious comic book art had alrcady gained momentum. One of the most exciting developments in all contemporary literature is the emergence during the past ten years of the ‘graphic novel’ — the comic book that has outgrown limited popular conventions of size, format and content and become a vehicle for the subtle discussion of important issues.1 Owing to the graphic novel's freedom from the typically brief duration, flat surfaces, standardized panels, constricted techniques, stereotyped characters, and simplified plots and attitudes of the conventional comic book, the graphic novel ‘reader’ experiences a richer sense of time and space and a deeper involvement of the senses than is available from any other no...