ENG 4433: Topics in World Lit

I’m no prescriptivist – I don’t really care what people call comics. Comics are a medium, and “graphic novel” is a category used to sell the long-form comic in bookstores. A comic’s genre can be anything. But if graphic novels are called “novels”, which refers to a literary genre that is fictional, can we use the term “graphic novel” to refer to works of non-fiction? We don’t say “non-fiction novel” – for non-fiction, I think we tend to refer to them by their genre: biographies, history, self-help… If Maus had been delivered as prose, it would be considered a memoir. But it wasn’t prose, because Spiegelman, a cartoonist active in underground comix, knew the power of the comics medium for storytelling. What is Maus? Between 1980 and 1991, Art Spiegelman released his comic Maus in the Raw comics anthology he co-edited with his wife. In Maus  I and II, Spiegelman depicted his father Vladek’s experiences during the Holocaust, as well as his interactions with Vladek in t...

That is an interesting question. Are they men or are they Maus? Are they real or are they fiction? Or are they perhaps both? Is the subgenre label of non-fiction graphic novels a misnomer? I can't speak for others, but I don't believe the label of non-fiction graphic novel is a misnomer. Well at least no more so than some history books. Regardless of whether the characters are drawn as men or mice, it is still only an artist's rendition of the events second hand. The artistic component of the novel cannot be nonfiction for this reason. It is the written portion of the story that is nonfiction. It is in this way that it can be both non-fiction and a novel. What's the art style can do for nonfiction is allow readers to empathize with the characters. The truth is in the words and the imagination is in the art. Even if it is a highly constructed medium it can still be true because the art is just the artist’s rendition of actual events. I actually think that using...

It's no secret that novels often blur the line between reality and fiction. Whether influenced by an author's experiences or drawn from them wholesale, all forms of artwork will always carry a piece of their artist. This is no less true for graphic novels, a medium often stereotyped by traditional capes-and-crusaders-style storytelling. Whether or not this stigma is deserved is an argument for another day, but for now we will venture into a lesser-known genre not typically associated with the great literature classics: the non-fiction graphic novel. You may ask yourself if this is a misnomer. By their very definitions, non-fiction and novels are considered their own distinct categories. A novel, per tradition, is considered inherently fictitious, and regardless of whether or not you think fiction and non-fiction should be regarded on the same level, I will circle back around to my initial argument that art will always be influenced by the experiences of its author, and th...

The term non-fiction graphic novel is not a misnomer because a misnomer is an inaccurate use of a term or phrase. In my opinion the term non-fiction graphic novel is a perfect term to fit books like Maus and Contract With God  because you can have a real life story and portray it in a medium that does not rely solely on text. Paintings are much like this because they are not a picture capturing the image nor a non-fiction piece of writing about the topic, but instead portray what happened using paint, a canvas, and the artist's imagination. It is pretty easy for something to be non-fiction and a novel because all you have to do is take the non-fiction story and add a creative twist to the way you tell the audience. Assigning simplistic images to a non-fiction story does not all of the sudden make it fiction, but it instead creates a way for the audience to relate to the protagonist or even antagonist in a way that they might not have been able to before. For example, in Understand...

I have a student in my first period class who is a comic book "junkie" at the beginning of the year I did not think much of it when he would pull out his comics on a break or in between lectures, assignments etc. Then I started taking my English class on graphic novels, I started  taking more notice of what it was he was reading. The other day I sat down and talked a bit with him about his "graphic novels". He was surprised I new the term, he actually said "how do you know that term"?  I told him I was taking this class and was studying graphic novels, his eyes lite up and he was off!!! I couldn't get him to stop talking for about 10 minutes. I think he named every single graphic novel ever written, his favorites and why they were his favorites in that short about of time. I asked him what he thought the difference between a graphic novel and a regular novel was. He said nothing really, except one has pictures which help your imagination to see what th...

Accuse someone who's reading a graphic novel of being into non-fiction and you might get the book thrown at you. These genres don't seem the same, but they actually can be combined as a story medium. After all, this is still a format with regular characters and scenes. It uses captions for words in a normal comic-strip world. Even narrating a longer, more detailed book-length story is done in a comic format. Hey, if it's still graphically relating events, I say let's go with non-fiction graphic novel. The line can get blurry when it comes to fiction or nonfiction in novels. Yes, we know nonfiction like biographies are supposed to be based on facts. But we've all seen that a little rearranging can help the narrative out. Well, nonfiction writers can use the tools of novelists to create more interesting details. If its' too creative, like say flying space monsters, we know it's fiction. But nonfiction still has many elements from fictional works. Think meta...

Art Spiegelman’s Maus is considered to be a non-fiction graphic novel, but is creating a graphic novel based off a true story even allowed? Maybe you thought graphic novels were meant to be fiction. Well, I think the form of a graphic novel should not be restricted to only fiction. It is known for graphic novels to be fiction rather than non-fiction because that is what a novel is, fiction, but the name shouldn’t be a limitation of what can and cannot be told though this medium. There are many reasons for why telling a non-fiction story through the form of a graphic novel is beneficial. Spiegelman was able to share the story of his father’s holocaust experience by creating a graphic novel of it, and from the looks of it, it’s been very successful. Telling a story through the form of a graphic novel allows the creator to deliver it in a unique way. We are able to understand the plot because of the language that is used along with the accompanying panels. In Maus , Spiegelman writes e...

Once upon a time, it was easy to distinguish fiction from reality. I knew what a story was, what a novel was. I understood it all; then I started grad school and everything I thought  I knew went out the window. So here I am, contemplating if something can be both a novel AND nonfiction. When it comes to your regular old words-on-the-page books, it's easy to determine what's true and what's not. Theoretically.  I mean, if we're just talking semantics and not diving into the fact that some times memorists lie , it's a quick and easy line. But graphic novels are where things become dicey. Even in the name of the genre, we're labeling things as a novel . Can you even think of another way to describe it? Graphic memoir. Nonfiction comicbook. I've got nothing; nothing that sounds good at least.  The thing is that words-on-the-page traditional novels are easy to define because words are words. We know what they are, that they're capable of telling ...

The term "non-fiction graphic novel" seems to contradict itself. In one sense, we hear "novel" and immediately go straight to the fantastic realm of literature where there are no limits and storytelling becomes a way to escape the real world. But then, let's throw the term "non-fiction" in there. Excuse me? A classic oxymoron. In my opinion, it is the best kind. As an avid reader, I have read everything from dystopian fiction to the most gushy romance novels. However, the books that pulled me in the most always had some sort of relatable element that really put me in the shoes of the main character. I thrive off of having something realistic to give me a better sense of what each character goes through. Non-fiction graphic novels do that for me. In stories like Maus by Art Spiegelman and  A Contract with God by Will Eisner, I find myself entering an entirely new world that seems all too familiar. These graphic novels allow for the re-telling of very pe...

Source: Pantheon. Maus . 1991. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maus What is a non-fiction graphic novel? It is a graphic novel that can make a story fit into the terms of being non-fiction with the plot being part of a real-life event. But how can someone tell if a graphic novel is part of the subcategory of being non-fiction? If the readers could easily identify that the plot of the story is connected to a real-life event or if it is like a real-life event, then most likely it is a non-fiction graphic novel. Now it is up to the author to see how they can use the constructed medium like comics and somehow shape it into a non-fiction graphic novel that will capture readers attention as well as explain history or a real event. How can it be both non-fiction and a novel? Well, there are several examples… One graphic novel that is considered as a non-fiction graphic novel is Maus by Art Spiegelman. In Maus, the readers watch as the protagonist, who they learn is Art Spiegelman h...

Maus as a Work of Non-Fiction:      W hen it comes to categorizing the genre of graphic novels, placing them is not always as simple as one might think. It is not as easy as merely choosing if a graphic novel is fiction or non-fiction. Most people are under the impression that novels have to be fiction, but this is not always the case. Although the majority of novels are not actually true, there are still several novels that are about true events. Take Art Spiegelman’s Maus for example. The novel is practically a biography as the author writes about his father’s retelling of actual events that took place during the Holocaust and how he and his wife, Spiegelman’s mother, survived such horrible incidents. Although the characters are depicted as cartoon animals, primarily cats (Nazis) and mice (Jews), the facts and historical dealings are far from cartoon-like. Maus also addresses Spiegelman’s complicated relationship with his father and how they are both a p...

Non-fiction graphic novel sure sounds like an oxymoron doesn’t it? Well, time to open your mind to something new.  Maus  by Art Spiegelman completely defies everything you’ve thought about graphic novels. He tells the true story of his father’s experience as a Jew during Hitler’s regime and guess what? It’s a graphic novel. Maybe we should call it a visual, sequential account of a true story? That’s a mouthful though and in all reality,  Maus  is nothing but a non-fiction graphic novel. The same goes for  Contract with God  which is said to have inspired Spiegelman to write  Maus . This non-fiction graphic novel (this really should just be a new genre) follows a man and everything that he goes through following the unexpected death of his daughter. Having a true story be represented through the art of a comic is truly inspired. It can bring reality and a new level of depth to the story that may not be possible through just words. Spiegelma...

What do we consider non-fiction? Obviously something that is not fiction, and is true, but does that mean it has to be old, boring, crusty, and fit nice and neat into the Dewey decimal system? I don’t think so, and obviously Art Spiegelman and Will Eisner don’t think so either. Eisner and Spiegelman took the idea of non-fiction books and turned it on its ear by adding “graphic novel” to the non-fiction genre. As Scott McCloud explained to us in Understanding Comics , a comic, or virtual sequential art can be defined "as art that is in pictures, it is the art of comics" (McCloud 5). In Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus we are introduced to our narrator and his father, Vladek. Vladek is a survivor of the Holocaust and his son Art or Artie, is telling readers the story through discussions with his father. Maus also seems to serve a dual purpose for the author, it tells the horrific events of the Holocaust, from the perspective of those that lived through it (Vladek), but it ...

When I was in elementary school, I had a hard time remembering the difference between non-fiction and fiction. Which one was real and which one was fake? My teacher told me an easy trick, one that I still use to this day working as a library clerk in a major library system: non-fiction is not fake, so it's true; fiction is fake, so it's fantasy or made-up. However, there's more to it than just what I learned in elementary school - can a non-fiction book be considered a novel? With a highly acclaimed graphic novel such as Maus, which earned the Pulitzer Prize in 1992, can a book be true but still a novel? It's not a misnomer. Fiction is writing that is not true, something made-up or a type of fantasy land, no matter how true to the world it may seem to be. It didn't actually happen so it's fiction. Non-fiction is something that actually did happen - it was based on a true story, so to speak. A novel, however, is something completely different. A novel doesn...