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Kitoba.Com >>> The Arts >>> Art Essays >>> Reconstructivist Art >>> Examples of Reconstructivist Art >>> Art Spiegelman's "Maus" (index)

October, 31st, 2008
last updated July, 29th, 2010

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Entry #5 Rating: 3.1/5 (8 votes cast)

Examples of Reconstructivist Art:

Art Spiegelman's "Maus"

by Chris Sunami

Experimental cartoonist Art Spiegelman shocked both his underground fan base and mainstream America with his emotional portrait of his parent’s lives during the Holocaust in graphic-novel (comic-book) format.

Nod to Artifice: Spiegelman appears as a character in the book(s) and comments on his troubles writing it.

Classic Structure: Unlike most prior graphic novels, "Maus" deals with a true story, told with gritty realism, and in a fairly straightforward fashion.

Transcontextual and Iconic Elements: Cartooning is by nature an iconic art, and Spiegelman makes defiantly non-ironic use of its many conventions, including the use of anthropomorphic animals to portray the story’s characters.

Moments of Genuine Emotion or Significance: Few were able to read Maus without being moved by the starkness of the book’s tragedies, and the humane qualities of its narrative.

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