Visual Arts and Film Studies - Essay Example

Visual Arts and Film Studies Most prefer writing textual books when composing novels and short stories to relay their message. However, comic writers have in most cases preferred illustrated texts to tell their stories. Art Spiegelman and Joe Sacco’s graphic novels, Maus (1991) and Palestin (2001) respectively, are examples of graphic novels that have taken the interest of the world. This essay is a discussion of the content and visual strategies that are used in these novels to convey complex cultural and political information, a comparison of the two, and the effectiveness of the graphic tool in these books to deal with complex issues. In his graphic novel Maus (1991), Spiegelman records history from an interview he conducted with his father Vladek. Vladek was a holocaust survivor who lived in New York, and he related his experiences that Spiegelman translated into a graphic novel. In this graphic story, the holocaust is comically depicted with Jews as Mice, the Poles as Pigs, Germans as Cats, French as Frogs, and Americans as Dogs (Wood 83). Through illustrations, the reader is compelled to make an action in his mind and by doing this; the author touches on soft underbellies that most texts would not dare to through non pictorial means (Ewert 82). The author has given a fresh understanding of holocaust in this novel. In Palestine, Sacco gives a graphical representation of the consequences of the first intifada in the holy land of Israel/Palestine. In this graphic novel, the author takes the audience through various refugee camps and towns in Palestine in a bid to gather stories, pictures and other relevant information. The book has interesting illustrations and written texts that convey various themes throughout the pictured pages. The two graphic novels have given an interesting revelation about the cultural and political state in their settings. For example, Maus (1991) was written with a cultural touch and especially when it masks the low cultural status of comical works in the English speaking world where the word ‘comic’ was not taken seriously. Moreover, the novel has been used as a cultural tool in most states. For example, the author of the novel went against the cultural expectations of fascism and accepted his book to be published in South Africa in opposition of apartheid regime (Wood 85). This is because the book is culturally revolutionary and advocates for human rights to be upheld by the ruling regimes. Likewise, Sacco’s Palestine is a work that centers on violence, brutality, and torture as forms of injustices that should not be allowed in the modern civilization (Weine 25). The novel has highlighted these injustices for the world regimes to see and evaluate their human approach in their state affairs. In both books, there are numerous pages in which the reader is treated to violent images or even a description of explicit violence. For example, in Palestine the second part of a section headed ‘Moderate Pressure’ we see a man called Ghassan is exposed to inhuman treatment for a fortnight only to be found innocent at last. In a bid to get information from him, the authorities are described in text and in pictures beating, fabricating evidence, and imposing all kinds of brutality on him. These revelations in the two books document a culture of violence, brutality, and injustice in the society and among the authorities. By using elaborate illustrations in a comical manner, the novels are seen as a threat by political leaders who are at the helm of regimes under which such injustices are carried out. There are many similarities in the two graphic novels. First, both books are graphic novels, which have utilized both text and parallel illustrations to narrate their stories. Spiegelman sources his narrative from an interview he conducted with his father who was a survivor of the Nazi holocaust. Sacco also roots his story on interviews conducted with Palestinians, who are the victims of the Israeli regime. Both these narratives from war victim interviewees are represented in cartoon forms by the authors. In both novels, there are depictions of violence, brutality and injustice to the victims. They are an exposure of how the powerless members of a society can be dehumanized and have their rights violated in some societies which do not value human life. Therefore, both novels parodies the regimes of Israeli and Nazi and especially visions of identifiable discriminations. On the other hand, while Maus uses animal metaphor to portray different races in Germany, the Palestine used ordinary cartoons. Reading Palestine leaves the reader suspended at the end because the story does not have a narrative closure, unlike the Maus that winds up when the war ends and the survivors are released from the camps (Ewert 86). Maus ends when the main character Vladek turns in his bed and tells art “Im tired from talking…its enough stories for now “(Wood 88). In Palestine, Sacco salvages his point of leaving the narrative open by telling the reader that “no one who knows what he’s come here looking for leaves without it.” He goes on to analyze that this position is in exception of those who go there seeking credible grounds for optimism for justice and enduring peace. Another difference is their settings; as Maus recount the sad story of Jews suffering in the hands of Nazis, Palestine is a narrative of how Palestinians suffered during the Israeli regime. A graphic novel is like a double edged sword that cuts from two sides. First, the novels ran two parallel media in narrating their text. One is the text and the other is the comical illustrations in form of cartoons. This way, the issues narrated in the two are complex issues, which can be limitedly brought out otherwise. For example, Maus has been able to talk about things that many historians and scholars who have documented the Nazi holocaust, could not explicitly record. Secondly, use of comical cartoon enables the authors to explore very grievous issues without fear because cartoons are deemed not to be serious. Therefore, the two graphic novels are good examples of how visual strategies can be used to convey complex cultural and political information. Although the two novels are written in the same style, they are different in setting, character formation and narrative arcs. The most significant thing to note in these books is that the authors have utilized visual arts to supplement the text so as to have their stories understood. Works Cited Ewert, Jeanne. “Art Spiegelmans Maus and the Graphic Narrative.” In Ryan, Marie-Laure. Narrative Across Media: The Languages of Storytelling. University of Nebraska Press, 2004. Print. Sacco, Joe. Palestine. New York: Fantagraphics, 2001. Print. Spiegelman, Art. Maus I: A Survivors Tale: My Father Bleeds History, Pantheon. 1st ed. 1991, Print. Weine, Stevan. Testimony After Catastrophe: Narrating the Traumas of Political Violence. Northwestern: Northwestern University Press, 2006. Print. Wood, Monica. “Maus: A Survivors Tale, Volumes I and II, by Art Spiegelman.” 12 Multicultural Novels: Reading and Teacher Strategies. Walch Publishing, 1997, pp. 81–94. Read More