MAUS

MAUS

In the previous lesson we learned about past simple and past continuous

(see: planner)

Introduction to Maus: graphic novel

Read text 2 and do assignments

Graphic Novel

A full –length story published in comic-strip format.

Novel storytelling is combined with the sequential art of the comic book to create the graphic novel.

Note

The term “Graphic Novel” describes the medium, not (necessarily) the genre. Meaning that graphic novels can fall into a variety of different genres.

 

However, the art form “graphic novel” is seen as a genre within literature as well.

Terminology

Match the terms to the different aspects:

A - Splash

B -  Panel 

C - Borderless panel

 D - Gutter
 E - Emanata
F -  Voice over
 G - Speech bubble

H - icon

Describe what happens in these pages. Comment on the way the story develops from panel to panel. 

Panel - Panel refers to the framed image. Sometimes panels do not have borders, creating a unique effect where the subject seems to stand outside the storyline.

Gutter - This refers to the space between panels. Readers tend to ‘fill in the blanks’ and imagine what happens between panels, a process known as ‘closure’.

What do you notice about the types of panels (size, shape, with or without border, etc.)? Why would authors create different types of panels?

Speech bubble - These are frames around the characters’ language, a kind of ‘direct speech’, where the characters speak for themselves.

Voice over - Narrators have the possibility to speak directly to the reader through a voice over. Usually this is done with a hard line separating the narrator’s speech at the top or bottom of a panel from the image within the panel.

Splash - Splash is a kind of panel that spans the width of the page. 

Panel vs borderless panel

Emanata - This term refers to the teardrops, sweat drops, question marks, or motion lines that artists draw besides characters’ faces to portray emotion.

 

Bleed - Sometimes borderless panel that seems to run off the page.

Onomatopoeia - the act of creating or using words that include sounds that are similar to the noises the words refer to

• What is the difference between the speech bubble in the first and second panel?

• What is the effect of colour?

Terminology

Match the terms to the different aspects:

A - Splash

B -  Panel 

C - Borderless panel

 D - Gutter
 E - Emanata
F -  Voice over
 G - Speech bubble

H - icon

Use the appropriate terminology when you analyse pages from Maus!

What do the emotional expressions in the left image convey about the mice's physical states?

P - E  - E 

Point: Answer the question in 1 sentence
Evidence: Use analysis to give examples

Explanation: How does this evidence support your point?

P - E  - E 

The mice's desiring looks convey helplessness and longing. One of the mice on the front is pictured with large bags beneath his eyes. These bags are a symbol of tiredness, which the mice couldn't do anything about as they are under total control of the Nazi's, and they simply want to sleep: longing for rest and peace.

! This is an EXAMPLE.   -> What is the P, E and E ?

P - E  - E 

Do it yourself:

Why might Art Spiegelman have decided to base the first image in his comic on a photograph?

How does Spiegelman’s allusion to the photograph help to ground his comic in historical truth?

P - E  - E 

Do it yourself:

P - E  - E 

Do it yourself:

Why might Art Spiegelman have decided to base the first image in his comic on a photograph?

How does Spiegelman’s allusion to the photograph help to ground his comic in historical truth?

Point

Evidence

Explanation

P - E  - E 

Do it yourself:

Point:

Art Spiegelman may have chosen to start Maus with a photograph to show that the story is based on real historical events and not just fiction.

Adding a real picture first helps readers understand from the very beginning that the events in the book actually happened.

Point

Evidence

Explanation

P - E  - E 

Do it yourself:

Evidence

In Maus, there aren't many real photographs: one of his brother Richieu, one of his father Vladek after being freed from a concentration camp in 1945, and one of his mother Anja with him as a child in 1968. He also used real historical photos to help him draw many of the scenes in the book. This means that even though the story is told using cartoon-style drawings, it is still based on real-life images and facts.

Point

Evidence

Explanation

P - E  - E 

Do it yourself:

Explanation:

By using real photographs, the writer makes sure that Maus is not just a personal story about his father but also a serious historical record of the Holocaust. The photographs help us picture what really happened and make it clear that these events are real, not just part of a comic book story. His use of real photos and careful research shows that he wanted Maus to be seen as a real and accurate representation of history, not just a creative story

Point

Evidence

Explanation

Mindmap

While reading the book, create a mind map of words you don't know. This should be a process.

Create word groups and add these words to the correct one (e.g. a group could be: Violence, Nazism, Concentration camps)

Read chapter 1-3 Answer (write down in ESSAY-STYLE in 200 words Point-Evidence-Explanation)

1. Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus opens with a  prologue that focuses on an interaction between Artie, and his father, Vladek. Artie falls down while roller skating; and when his friends don’t stop to help

him, Artie returns home in tears. He proceeds to tell his father about what happened.

1. How does Vladek respond to his son’s story? 

2. Did the father’s response strike you as odd? Why or why not? 

3. What might it reveal about his character?

Hand in by the end of the lesson. 

What?

How?

Time?

Question?

Done?

Do assignment 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 of wasp-reporter.

Finish the crossword.

Point: 

Vladek's reaction to Artie's story reveals that he has a harsh, unsympathetic view of friendship, shaped by distrust and a focus on self-reliance, possibly as a result of his experiences in a harsh world.

Evidence:

When Artie came home crying and told him that his friends didn't help him after he fell while roller-skating, Vladek responded by saying: "Well, come on, hold this while I’m sawing. Friends, I’ll tell you what it is. Friends. Try to put them together in a room with no food for a week, and you'll see what it is, friends.".

Vladek then asked Artie to hold a plank of wood while he sawed.

Explanation:

Vladek's cynical remark about friendship, in which he suggests that friendship quickly disappears under the pressure of scarcity, shows that he harbors a deep distrust of the loyalty of others. This may stem from a world where survival often depended on individual action and where one could not always rely on others. As the novel states, this reaction casts a "shadow" over a commonplace moment and introduces the theme of the intertwining of past and present in Maus.