Maus: Narrating Life through Archiving of Autotopographical Objects

Abstract

Autotopographical objects play a pivotal role in life narratives, and the graphic novel Maus: A Survivor's Tale, by Art Spiegelman is no exception. Based on a close reading and textual analysis of the text, the present study analyses the autotopographical objects in the novel under four categories: photographs, masks, miscellaneous objects of everyday life, and lost autotopographical objects, with a view to expounding the nexus between life narration and autotopographical objects. It was found that autotopographical objects in Maus show how objects enable the life narratives to be constructed and viewed in varied lights, how the autotopographical objects become an embodiment of lives narrated, the significance of the artist's involvement in contextualizing these objects and providing supplementary details, metamorphosis of everyday objects into autotopographical objects in the course of life narration, and the significance and impact of absent autotopographical objects in creating gaps in life narratives while adding layers of meaning through the dynamics of absence and presence.