Maus Now: Selected Writing

by Hillary L. Chute (Editor)

Richly illustrated with images from Art Spiegelman's Maus ("the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust" --The Wall Street Journal), Maus Now includes work from twenty-one leading critics, authors, and academics--including Philip Pullman, Robert Storr, Ruth Franklin, and Adam Gopnik--on the radical achievement and innovation of Maus, more than forty years since the original publication of "the first masterpiece in comic book history" (The New Yorker).

Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Art Spiegelman is one of our most influential contemporary artists; it's hard to overstate his effect on postwar American culture. Maus shaped the fields of literature, history, and art, and has enlivened our collective sense of possibilities for expression. A timeless work in more ways than one, Maus has also often been at the center of debates, as its recent ban by the McMinn County, Tennessee, school board from the district's English language-arts curriculum demonstrates.
Maus Now: Selected Writing collects responses to Spiegelman's monumental work that confirm its unique and terrain-shifting status. The writers approach Maus from a wide range of viewpoints and traditions, inspired by the material's complexity across four decades, from 1985 to 2018. The book is organized into three loosely chronological sections-- "Contexts," "Problems of Representation," and "Legacy"--and offers for the first time translations of important French, Hebrew, and German essays on Maus.
Maus is revelatory and generative in profound and long-lasting ways. With this collection, American literary scholar Hillary Chute, an expert on comics and graphic narratives, assembles the world's best writing on this classic work of graphic testimony.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, History, Holocaust, Graphic Novels, Historical, Comics

432 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2022

About the author

Hillary Chute is an American literary scholar and an expert on comics and graphic narratives.

Chute's work focuses on comics and graphic novels, contemporary fiction, visual studies, American literature, gender and sexuality studies, literature and the arts, critical theory, and media studies.

She is the author of Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics (Columbia University Press, 2010), Outside the Box: Interviews with Contemporary Cartoonists (University of Chicago Press, 2014), Disaster Drawn: Visual Witness, Comics, and Documentary Form (Harvard University Press, 2016), and Why Comics? From Underground to Everywhere (Harper, 2017). Her book Maus Now: Selected Writing, an edited volume, appeared from Pantheon in 2022.

She is also associate editor of Art Spiegelman’s MetaMaus (Pantheon, 2011), which won a National Jewish Book Award, among other prizes. She recently co-edited the Critical Inquiry special issue “Comics & Media” (University of Chicago Press, 2014), and in 2006 she co-edited the MFS: Modern Fiction Studies special issue “Graphic Narrative,” the first issue of a journal in the field of literature devoted to analyzing comics. She has written for publications including Artforum, Bookforum, The Believer, and Poetry.

She was associate professor of English, and an associate faculty member in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago before joining the Northeastern faculty as Distinguished Professor of English and Art + Design. Chute serves on the Executive Committee of Northeastern’s Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program. She is a comics and graphic novels columnist for the The New York Times Book Review.

Reviews

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Maus Now". A collection of essays and writings about Art Spiegelman's landmark work, "Maus".   Hillary Chute has pulled together a best of selection of pieces that explore the comic and it's impact.
    What stood out to me is how many times the exact same elements were pulled out and written about over the years. But more fascinating than that, was just the way the comic was spoken about early on in its publication, to the evolution of graphic novel in more recent years.    
     I understand the irony here of being a critic of the critics, but I found it almost humorous that they really focused on trying to justify why a comic was worth reading, almost as though it was beneath them. One even goes on to explain the difference in the rectangular boxes used for narration and commentary vs the dialogue being in speech bubbles.
     Fast forward to more recent years and it's easy to see what a groundbreaking work Maus was, not just because of its subject matter, but also for how it changed the landscape of the "comic" to a "graphic novel" and into a medium that can be, and absolutely is used to tell stories just as important and serious as non-fiction and fiction books.
      One thing is clear, Maus was, and continues to be an important piece of work, for it's history, and for the ways it has influenced countless other current, and future pieces.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maus Now: Selected Writing, edited by Hillary Chute , is an interesting book containing numerous literary critiques, in essay format, on the famous holocaust graphic novel Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History and Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman. This is a now famous work, winner of a Pulitzer Prize, and one of my favourite graphic novels of all time. The book was recently banned by a school board in the United States, prompting my interest in this graphic novel, as the world's largest democracy moves toward banning books. The critiques here are all about the graphic novel itself - the comic book aesthetic, the use of animal heads for characters, and of course, the deep and realistic narrative of a Holocaust survivor and his son, who is chronicling his fathers life in graphic novel format. This book was interesting to read, in terms of the literary reviews and thoughts from the artistic community that are contained within. Essays span from the 1980's to modern times, so a range of opinions exist, as do the interpretations and understanding of the work into modern times. An interview with the Spiegelman ends the book, which is interesting and insightful.

On the whole, this book was worth a read as a Maus fan, and it is also an interesting read in terms of literary critique of a graphic novel. Although the medium is increasingly respected in modern times, it was not always so, and plenty of incredulous articles from the late 80's are contained within this work, noting graphic novels as "low art". On the other hand, many of the critiques felt similar in nature - discussions on the animal faces used in the novel abound, although some others revolve around the use of photography, graphic novels as serious literature, and so forth. I felt like I was reading similar opinions over and over, and was hoping for more content on Maus as literature in the modern world, especially in the face of rising suppressions of speech coming from the far right in Western democracies. Not a bad read at all, but not a super deep one - except of course for the horrifying nature and content contained within Maus. However, this read did kick start my love for the graphic novel (I will be rereading it again soon) and for meta analysis of graphic novels more generally.

[Lisa]

hmmmm. I don't know what to call the issue that I'm sure comes up in many collections like this - much of the same material is approached over and over again, down to the same panels and the same quotes (I went to look for an index to see if there was a count of how many times Adorno/"to write lyric poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric" is cited, and didn't find an index, but did fine a note on p 354 that actually digs into the fuller quote, which is much more interesting?!). And in theory it's interesting to have multiple people discuss the same panel, but so much of the time, these writers are saying the same thing. It's interesting to see the perspectives evolve over time, but I wish there had been a way to do that without so much redundancy. Maybe that can only happen in a collection where writers are assigned topics, rather than when pre-existing articles are gathered together.

Anyway, unfortunately I also wanted this book to explore some topics that it didn't really (or not enough for my interest), which of course isn't a fair critique. But I still haven't seen a lot of focus on women in Maus, in this father/son story - of course, much of the whole story is about the (deliberate) erasure of Anja's side of the story, and that Art (and Vladek and anyone) will never be able to tell it. I think the most interesting essay to me was "My Travels with Maus, 1992-2020" by Marianne Hirsch. Here, it is highlighted: "But Maus is dominated by this absence of Anja's voice, the destruction of her diaries, her missing note. Anja is recollected by others, she remains a visual and not an aural presence. She speaks in sentences imagined by her son or recollected by her husband." I don't know about the further discussion into the Orphic aspects of Maus, but seeing how much "postmemory" shows up in later essays, I appreciated this essay the most.

[Selena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish this book would have existed 2 years ago when I was writing my paper on second generation children of the Holocaust it would have been so helpful. Admittedly, when I first read Maus for that paper I was only analyzing the dialogue and this helped me see more about the pictures and introduced me to new terms I had not previously encountered like 'postmemory.' That being said this is not a book for the everyday person this is more for scholars or those with a deep, deep love of Maus. And my only critic really is that towards the end all the critics started to sound the same so I would have like more variety.

[Juli Rahel · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Maus Now' is a book full of fascinating critical engagement with Art Spiegelman's 'Maus', which tracks a variety of different themes explained by a wide range of critics, Since 'Maus's publication, the "graphic novel" genre has altered significantly, especially in how the genre is received by critics. It is now recognised as a valuable medium, something which was not a given in the 20th century. Now, 'Maus' is rightly recongised as the masterpiece it is, although it is once again in danger of being banned or hidden away. At this time, it is even more important that works like this receive this kind of attention, but especially that books like 'Maus Now' also depict the way criticism itself changes. There is no uniformity of thought here, art like 'Maus' can bring out a whole range of responses and discussions, each of which deserves its place in the public forum.

I would say that "Maus Now" is a better read for those with a good knowledge and strong connection to the work. If you're not very familiar with it, it might be difficult to follow some of the critics in their arguments or understand where they're trying to go. For me, I felt like 'Maus Now' really deepened by awareness of the graphic novel. One downside is that as the book covers a wide array of critiques across the decades that some things are repeated quite often, as certain aspects get discussed over and over again. It meant that it took me some time to read through it, but I'd still recommend it to those interested in diving into 'Maus' a little deeper. The interview with Spiegelman himself at the end is also incredibly insightful and was a great way to end the whole book.

[Book Club of One · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maus Now: Selected Writing takes the reader through 21 essays highlighting the international discourse of Art Spiegelman's Maus from its early 1980s serialization in RAW magazine through to the present year, 2022. It was the first graphic novel to win a "Special" Pulitzer Prize (1992) due, in part, to the difficulty of classifying it to a specific genre.

For those researching Spiegelman or Maus this is an excellent source, especially when paired with 2011's MetaMaus. Through Maus Now we see the critical responses to the work and the debates and discussions focused on it. Some essays are newly translated to English, having been published in French, German or Hebrew. The volume also includes many excerpts from Maus and other Spiegelman works to emphasize their points.

While the book is loosely divided into three sections: Contexts, Problems of Representation and Legacy, some elements are discussed multiple times. Recurrent essay topics are the choice to depict the different groups as animals, the narration language, familial relationships, post-memory/generational trauma and the resolution at the end of volume 2.

As a work of scholarship this title will be of benefit to many researchers, or selected readings can help aid in class discussions. As a leisure read, it is best visited in small doses as the repetition of key narrative points or stylistic choices lessens the impact of a straight read through.

I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.

[Fred Baerkircher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of essays, a little heavy on entries from the New Yorker. It divides them by broad category: context, representation, and legacy.

Maus itself has kind of fallen off the radar a little these past few years, which is a shame because it's still a must-read.

[Amit · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is no doubt that the "Maus" by art spiegelman is a modern classic and remains important part of history. Maus definately changed, the way, people looked at Holocaust and Jewish persecution. The usage of unorthodox cartoon/sketch as a medium for conveying such a loaded stuff, definately was a milestone for graphic artists as a field.
The only reason I wanted to read this book was because of the "Maus". The selected writings about the Maus, no doubt shed light on the underlying context, intergenerational trauma of author and the legacy of the Maus. But otherwise the book was quite bland. After sometime, you feel like same things are getting repeated by different writers. Not recommended.

[Theediscerning · Rating 4 out of 5]

Way back when, when a younger me reviewed MetaMAUS (http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/M...) I suggested it had the feel that the creator of Maus, Art Spiegelman, was finally shrugging off the impact of the work, and that he might have got the drive to go elsewhere with his talent. That book's co-creator is a different beast, however, declaring that this volume is only to mark the midway point of Maus's eighty year legacy. And anyway, rampant anti-Semitism in the USA and in the British opposition party has kind of kept that particular rodent in its particular exercise wheel, still unable to step off and leave its cycle – Art is still lecturing about Maus and its effect in what might otherwise have been his retirement years.

Still, as a much-belated sister volume to MetaMAUS comes this, a compilation of essays and thoughts, some flash-in-the-pan newspaper articles (Philip Pullman) and some ultra-hard-to-find academic pieces (he says hopefully), and some freshly into the English language. And it is a mixed bag, as seemingly intended. One German article seems heavily down on comic forms, either from a truly portrayed opinion or from the desire to belabour a point. It does come from a time, and from a chunk in this book ("Contexts") when the canonical power of this and of graphic novels in total is much underestimated.

Part two, on feedback for the book, begins with a novella of an essay, as opposed to the short stories elsewhere, taking far too much out of the fact Maus presents three photographs to us, and bringing something called postmemory to the fore. The curates egg style continues – one handy introduction steered me away from an extended musing about the validity and/or charge to be had from writing about the Holocaust in English, but I loved a look at comedic writing on the subject which featured Maus (I) for much less than a third. One I might have skipped – on Adorno-based mimesis – says how it's such and such a level of veracity, ignoring every other article around its complaint that Spiegelman changed the wording and ramped up the personal quirks of his father's interviews. (A bigger exclamation mark is in the margin perhaps where one essay completely misreads the last appearance of the name of Art's late brother.)

On the whole I could call this well-edited; with so many authors tasked with defining Maus at the start of the essays, there is very little repetition. That said, all told there seems very little consensus – just take the thoughts on Art's dad's character, ranging as they do from "resourceful" (an Israeli opinion) to "thoroughly unpleasant" or "not a nice guy, ever". The editing lets all that, errors and differences of opinion, slide, and even when people disagree on the shorthand for "Prisoner on the Hell Planet" it all passes as OK.

So it's a success, as far as these books go. But should it be purchased by you? That does depend on circumstances. I get the feel some of the academics here think Maus has been wrestled with for enough dissertations already, thank you – and it has to be remembered that a lot of the contents here have some age now. Is this, eighty years of intent regardless, a full-stop, a summation of intellectual thinking on Maus, and there's the sign-off? Potentially. But I had said the same of MetaMAUS, which presents not only an academic appreciation of the work but each and every scrap of soundbite, prelim sketch and early draft, all on CD-ROM (ask your dad). What I think I'm trying to say is that MetaMAUS seems a more sensible product to approach if you do need the book that demands you see afresh and think more deeply about Maus. Maus Now is a much deeper plunge down the rabbit hole, and as such takes us too far for many of the general readers to still be interested. But the contents here do feature many comments about Spiegelman mixing lowbrow and highbrow art and art forms, so there is still justification in this publication, for some high-thinking few.

[Michele Pfrogner · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should not have to go back to grad school to try and understand at least 50% of the readings presented here. Of course, the university professors whose works were chosen for this collection have publication quotas to reach, cronies to impress, theories to create, and $1,000 words to throw around. Maybe I am supposed to be impressed? I am not.
Less readings and more editor notes, like those used for Delannoy's "Speigelman, in Nobody's Land," would have been much more helpful. Reading Huyssen's "Of Mice and Mimesis ..." was sheer torture: I could not find a viable definition of "mimesis," and I know nothing of Adorno's writing. Even the Q & A with Spiegelman did not work for me, for there was very little actual discussion of Maus. There were related topics, of course, but if I was back in the classroom (I'm retired), there was little I could actually use.
I am also very tired of so called "scholars" always finding a way to criticize Americans, in this case our English language, in reference to "colonization" (193). The American soldiers treating the newly freed Vladek as an indentured servant were just jerks; they don't represent "American colonization" at all. My dad fought in WWII, and he talked often about the "lazy French" who expected the Americans to do all of the rebuilding of their bombed cities. I never once thought that ALL Frenchmen would sit and watch the Americans doing work, instead of actually helping. Again, the American soldiers giving Vladek orders were plain and simple idiots, but leave it to those more "educated" (Ha! Ha!) to turn it into something more.
Perhaps I am too stupid to read this collection, and, if so, I have no excuses. However, I expected more from this collection. The showboating, the author/philosopher cross-referencing, the lofty vocabulary ... this is not for me, personally or as a teacher.
I read a review of this collection by Rachel Cooke, and she said it best: "However many times I read Maus, I always close it with the feeling that no more needs to be said."

[Mac Ferrone · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Maus - it’s an excellent comic book that tells the story of the artist and his father, two Holocaust survivors (in two different ways) with Nazis portrayed as cats and Jewish people portrayed as mice. It’s dense with meaning and is endlessly engaging.

In response, Maus Now serves as a very effective nod to the impact of Art Spiegalman’s original work. As a compilation of analytical essays compiled together, one can see the physical effect Maus had on a wider populace. But by actually reading the essays, I was treated to many different points that I didn’t consider when reading Maus, which makes me appreciate the work that went into creating it even more. I also respect that the essays are not always positive - at several points, critics will call out certain aspects of the book that might be dated or problematic - showing that Maus is not free of its weaknesses. As is life, not everything is black and white.

Although, I did have some issues. While each essay is distinct, because they all focus on one book, it can feel a bit monotonous to read. Moreover, the word choice and prose is pretty “high level” for lack of a better term, which caused some of the points made to be lost on me. However, if one was to read the essays one at a time, day by day, then my issues might not be issues for others!

As such, I recommend Maus Now to those who have an interest in the original book, comic books in general, and in history!

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maus Now by Hillary Chute (editor) is a collection of essays about Art Spiegelman's landmark work, Maus. If you are reading this review you likely know the importance of that work, which is a moving, impactful graphic work about Spiegelman's parents who were both imprisoned in Auschwitz during World War II. It is a work that was recently banned in Tennessee, and which a generous bookstore owner in California offered to ship for free to anyone in that district who asked for it. Spiegelman is also well known for his political comics that ran in The New Yorker for decades. Chute has put together an excellent selection of writings that demonstrate the importance of Spiegelman's fantastic graphic nonfiction work.

I struggled with some of the essayists who focused too heavily on the form of the book -- criticism based solely on the fact that it is a comic. One even tried to explain that it is somehow not a comic because the narrative boxes were rectangles rather than speech bubbles! I picture a very stodgy and elderly white man in his cardigan, drinking his 7th coffee of the morning, trying to convince himself that there is merit in a comic because the speech is in rectangles...

[Scott Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5 stars) Since the graphic novels came out in the late 1980s, Maus has generated a lot of thought and debate. The memoir-ish narrative mixed in with the symbolic uses of animals to represent peoples and countries to try to come to grips with personal and global tragedies brought significant attention to Holocaust literature. Nowadays, Maus is considered a key work for reading/studying about the Holocaust. As a result, there is not shortage of academic thought/analysis to gleam from Maus, and this work is just an example of what is out there. It covers themes from lost, memory, grief, the use of cartoons to express human emotion and the difficulty of memory.

It is through and filled with a lot of themes and concepts. Perhaps it is easier to just read Maus and make up your own mind. Still, if you had any side thoughts or looking for deeper meaning in Maus, this compendium it one you should look to for reference. Worth the read, but best if you just read Maus first.

[Viral · Rating 4 out of 5]

An overall solid collection of essays from various years reflecting on the importance of Maus. I felt the first few essays were the weakest, reeked of elitism with their whole "woah, can you believe?? a comic book?? can be insightful and interesting??? what???" tone. The David Samuels interview with Spiegelman was the star, and absolutely phenomenal conversation about the role of the Holocaust in the construction of modern Jewish identity and the role in plays in the national mythos of Israel. A good followup to reading Maus, but as it is with essay collections, some were much stronger than others.

[Gary Lang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Expect some repetition, and a few key revelations

Key scenes in the original book are going to have importance to many critics, so you should expect to read recaps of the same scenes from Maus several times while reading the different critical analysis that form the basis of this book. But the analyses covered by the authors don't themselves have an a lot of overlaps with each other, so the book is rich with multi-dimensional context and conclusions.

I didn't think it was possible to learn more about Maus after so many years of reading it and about it but I certainly did. This book is a good introduction to why Maus works and what its effects have been on the culture.

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maus Now successfully achieves its goals to present the best writing on Maus there is from multiple time periods, print locations, in both public and academic spheres. The collection also shows just how much of an impact Maus has continued to have on people. I enjoyed the criticism also included in the collection because the criticism helps to highlight the continued push, particularly more recently, against the medium and content of Maus.

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for the dARC of this work in exchange for my honest review.

[Krizia Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have read both volumes of “Maus” before and absolutely loved it thus choosing “Maus Now” to read and review. Basically, “Maus Now” is a collection of essays written about “Maus” and there is a lot. “Maus” is a tour de force in the literary world because it’s a comic book about a serious subject and a non-fiction story with animals as characters. However, the essays seems repetitive, same elements on repeat. Its boring and exasperating. The essays were nicely written but they all a repetition of the same thing. This could have been better with better editing and less essays.

Thank you Netgalley and Pantheon for providing me with an ARC Copy of the book in exchange of my honest review.

[Mae · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this read for the most part. I liked the writing style and learning more about Art Spiegelman. The book was however, a bit repetitive and added a lot of fluff that I found boring. Maybe the book could've been shorter by about 150 pages. Most of this book was interesting and I learned some new stuff about comics, writing, and graphic novels. Definitely worth the read if you loved Maus 1 and 2, and/or enjoy comics.

[3 Things About This Book · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whether you read Maus I and II or not, this book gives you perspective of many others both negative and positive: what Maus means, what it symbolizes, whether it is right to depict something horrible this way, whether being a comic makes it more approachable without breaking anyone and everyone

I really liked this collection of essays describing the emotion and reality of Maus. I strongly recommend

[Stephanie Bange · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not for your average reader, however scholars and fans of Maus will appreciate seeing what other critics of this ground-breaking graphic novel think. Twenty-one critics, authors, and academics get to share their two cents about the innovation and impact of Maus since it was first published in 1973.

It is the center of controversy even today...

Recommended for adults and as professional reading for teachers and scholars studying the book.

[Devon]

finally finished this after a million years
one can only read so many essays in a row about the same text
also sometimes i just don't feel like reading academic essays (shocker) and want fiction so
good collection for going deep into one text! this but for like every novel ever i guess?
love loved the interview chapter the most but maybe im also just saying that because i read that chapter yesterday and i read the majority of the chapters 2 months ago so

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really interesting companion to The Complete Maus.

As always in a compilation, there are some pieces that are better than others. I particularly liked Comics and Catastrophe: Art Spiegelman's Maus and the History of
the Cartoon by Adam Gopnik and Spiegelman, in Nobody's Land by Pierre-Alban Delannoy. I rounded up to 4 stars because of these two; otherwise, I might have gone with 3 or 3.5.

[Sally Kilpatrick]

I gave this one the old English major skim, i.e. reading some essays in their entirety while skimming through others. Not a lot of new information here, but I'm sure the book would be really helpful for anyone wanting to do a deep dive. As it turns out, I think I've learned what I needed to learn from the source material.

I did learn more about why Spiegelman chose to use animals. I did find the essay on graphic art to be particularly interesting as was the interview at the end.

[Beth]

#netgalleyarc I found this book to be really enlightening, educational, and interesting. I really enjoyed reading Maus and reading these essays about the books was great. It’s not something I think my students would be interested in but anyone interested in the story behind a book would really enjoy this.

[Steve]

Read the first 80 or so pages, excellent essays about Maus, very readable and interesting, including an essay by a friend — Thomas Doherty. The first 8 or so essays were all good, but I kind of ran out of steam reading about the topic.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up because I’m teaching Holocaust lit this semester and because I always appreciate Ruth Franklin’s thoughtful essays. Was impressed with the range and depth of the scholarship and would definitely recommend this to anyone teaching or reading Maus I and II.

[Bruce Boeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting collection of essays about the Pulitzer prize-winning graphic novel. Good read but here a bit repetitious.

[Trent · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, Maus Now. Gives a full analysis of both Maus and it’s author, Art Spiegelman. It get’s very much in to the detail’s that maybe a bit too academic for some. A very good reading of a collection of essay’s and writing’s for others. Maus after all, is a groundbreaking work that haven’t really been done before. Thus it make’s for a very fascinating interesting read.

[Hayley · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is the sort of hyper specific deep dive I can get into!!

[Kevin Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

A devastating, necessary examination.