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Spiegelman's Magic Box: and the Archive of Representation

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The 2011 publication of MetaMaus, which marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of Maus’ publication, continued Art Spiegelman's long-standing preoccupation with creating an archive of his own fraught process of representation. While the difficulties of representing his father's experiences during the Holocaust were foregrounded in the representational strategies of his acclaimed two-volume graphic novel Maus, they continued to haunt Spiegelman even after the book's publication. In 1991, a museum exhibit, ‘The Road to Maus’, displayed the layers involved in Maus’ creation. In 1994, Spiegelman developed The Complete Maus CD-ROM, an interactive, digital archive of Maus. And in 2011, Spiegelman published MetaMaus, which combines reflection on and documentation of the process of representing Maus. Drawing on Jacques Derrida's and Giorgio Agamben's theorizations of the archive, this chapter explores the different kinds of archival work that Maus and MetaMaus do. Both Derrida and Agamben call attention to the traditional archive's exclusion of affective traces of the past. The chapter suggests that Maus and MetaMaus function as archives of the ‘after-effects’ of the Holocaust. As Maus so effectively demonstrates, the Holocaust did not end with the conclusion of World War II; its effects continue to be felt decades later by the survivors as well as by their children, who did not experience the events ‘first-hand’. Whereas traditional histories of the Holocaust narrate events that took place between 1933 and 1945, Maus depicts those events along with the difficulties of responding to and representing them. In documenting the process of representing Maus, MetaMaus invites a rethinking of what counts as history, and by extension what counts as an archive.

Hardback ISBN: 9781789389494
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Spiegelman's Magic Box: and the Archive of Representation
Intellect , 61 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1386/9781789389494_6
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References

  1. Agamben, G. (1999), Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive (trans. D. Heller-Roazen), New York: Zone Books.
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  2. Anderson, J. and Katz, B. (2003), ‘Read only memory: Maus and its marginalia on CD-ROM’, in D. Geiss (ed.), Considering Maus: Approaches to Art Spiegelman's ‘Survivor's Tale’ of the Holocaust, Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, pp. 159–74.
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  3. Bell, D. (2004), ‘Infinite archives’, Substance, 33:3, pp. 148–61.
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  4. Burton, A. (ed.) (2005), Archive Stories: Facts, Fictions and the Writing of History, Durham and London: Duke University Press.
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  5. Chute, H. (2012), ‘Comics as archives: Meta MetaMaus’, E-misférica, 9.1–2. http://hemisphericinsti-tute.org/hemi/en/e-misferica-91/chute. Accessed 12 November 2012.
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  6. Derrida, J. (1996), Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression (trans. E. Prenowitz), Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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  7. Featherstone, M. (2006), ‘Archive’, Theory, Culture & Society, 23:2&3, pp. 591–96.
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  8. Foucault, M. (1972), The Archeology of Knowledge (trans. A. Smith), New York: Pantheon.
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  9. Hirsch, M. (1992), ‘Family pictures: Maus, mourning and post-memory’, Discourse, 15:2, pp. 3–29.
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  10. Hirsch, M. (2012), The Generation of Postmemory: Writing and Visual Culture After the Holocaust, New York: Columbia University Press.
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  11. Lanzmann, C. (dir.) (1985), Shoah, France: Historia, Les Films Aleph, and Ministère de la Culture de la Republique Française.
  12. O'Driscoll, M. (2010), ‘Archiviologies: The archival (re)turn’, The Archive and Everyday Life Conference, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, 7–8 May.
  13. Rogoff, I. (2002), ‘An-Archy: Scattered records, evacuated sites, dispersed loathings’, Alphabet City, 8, pp. 668–81.
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  14. Rothberg, M. (2000), Traumatic Realism: The Demands of Holocaust Representation, Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.
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  15. Spiegelman, A. (1986), Maus I, A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History, New York: Pantheon.
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  16. Spiegelman, A. (1991a), Maus II, A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began, New York: Pantheon.
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  17. Spiegelman, A. (1991b), ‘A problem of taxonomy’, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Company, 29 December, p. 4.
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  18. Spiegelman, A. (1994), The Complete Maus, CD-ROM, USA: Voyager.
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  19. Spiegelman, A. (2000), ‘Packing memory into little boxes’, Representing the Holocaust: Practices, Products, Projections, LeHigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 21–23 May.
  20. Spiegelman, A. (2011a), MetaMaus: A Look Inside a Modern Classic, Maus, New York: Pantheon.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Spiegelman, A. (2011b), The Complete Maus Files, DVD, USA: Pantheon.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Steedman, C. (2001), Dust: The Archive and Cultural History, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.78
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  23. Stoler, A. (2002), ‘Colonial archives and the arts of governance’, Archival Science, 2, pp. 87–109.
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  24. Stoler, A. (2009), Along the Archival Grain: Epistemic Anxieties and Colonial Common Sense, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Storrs, R. (1991), ‘Making Maus’, Pamphlet for Projects Exhibition Room, New York: Museum of Modern Art.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. van Alphen, E. (1997), Caught by History: Holocaust Effects in History, Literature and Art, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Witek, Joseph (ed.) (2007), Art Spiegelman: Conversations, Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
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  28. Young, J. (2000), At Memory's Edge, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
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References

  1. Agamben, G. (1999), Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive (trans. D. Heller-Roazen), New York: Zone Books.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Anderson, J. and Katz, B. (2003), ‘Read only memory: Maus and its marginalia on CD-ROM’, in D. Geiss (ed.), Considering Maus: Approaches to Art Spiegelman's ‘Survivor's Tale’ of the Holocaust, Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, pp. 159–74.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Bell, D. (2004), ‘Infinite archives’, Substance, 33:3, pp. 148–61.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Burton, A. (ed.) (2005), Archive Stories: Facts, Fictions and the Writing of History, Durham and London: Duke University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Chute, H. (2012), ‘Comics as archives: Meta MetaMaus’, E-misférica, 9.1–2. http://hemisphericinsti-tute.org/hemi/en/e-misferica-91/chute. Accessed 12 November 2012.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Derrida, J. (1996), Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression (trans. E. Prenowitz), Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Featherstone, M. (2006), ‘Archive’, Theory, Culture & Society, 23:2&3, pp. 591–96.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Foucault, M. (1972), The Archeology of Knowledge (trans. A. Smith), New York: Pantheon.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Hirsch, M. (1992), ‘Family pictures: Maus, mourning and post-memory’, Discourse, 15:2, pp. 3–29.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Hirsch, M. (2012), The Generation of Postmemory: Writing and Visual Culture After the Holocaust, New York: Columbia University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Lanzmann, C. (dir.) (1985), Shoah, France: Historia, Les Films Aleph, and Ministère de la Culture de la Republique Française.
  12. O'Driscoll, M. (2010), ‘Archiviologies: The archival (re)turn’, The Archive and Everyday Life Conference, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, 7–8 May.
  13. Rogoff, I. (2002), ‘An-Archy: Scattered records, evacuated sites, dispersed loathings’, Alphabet City, 8, pp. 668–81.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Rothberg, M. (2000), Traumatic Realism: The Demands of Holocaust Representation, Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Spiegelman, A. (1986), Maus I, A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History, New York: Pantheon.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Spiegelman, A. (1991a), Maus II, A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began, New York: Pantheon.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Spiegelman, A. (1991b), ‘A problem of taxonomy’, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Company, 29 December, p. 4.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Spiegelman, A. (1994), The Complete Maus, CD-ROM, USA: Voyager.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Spiegelman, A. (2000), ‘Packing memory into little boxes’, Representing the Holocaust: Practices, Products, Projections, LeHigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 21–23 May.
  20. Spiegelman, A. (2011a), MetaMaus: A Look Inside a Modern Classic, Maus, New York: Pantheon.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Spiegelman, A. (2011b), The Complete Maus Files, DVD, USA: Pantheon.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Steedman, C. (2001), Dust: The Archive and Cultural History, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.78
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Stoler, A. (2002), ‘Colonial archives and the arts of governance’, Archival Science, 2, pp. 87–109.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Stoler, A. (2009), Along the Archival Grain: Epistemic Anxieties and Colonial Common Sense, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Storrs, R. (1991), ‘Making Maus’, Pamphlet for Projects Exhibition Room, New York: Museum of Modern Art.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. van Alphen, E. (1997), Caught by History: Holocaust Effects in History, Literature and Art, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Witek, Joseph (ed.) (2007), Art Spiegelman: Conversations, Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Young, J. (2000), At Memory's Edge, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
     [Google Scholar]

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