The author of the internationally acclaimed and controversial comic book Maus, which addressed how the Holocaust affected relationships between survivors and their families, will be speaking at UR Wednesday, March 20 in Strong Auditorium at 9 p.m.
Art Spiegelman is the son of Polish Jews who survived imprisonment in the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz. The book is based on his parents’ experiences during the Holocaust. He portrayed the Jews at mice, the Germans as cats and Americans as dogs.
The book won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. The book is used in many classes at UR including Professor of Religion William Green and Professor of History Celia Applegate’s The Holocaust course.
External Chair for OSC and Take-Five Scholar Mindy Fountain said that was a driving force to choose Spiegelman. The event is co-sponsered by Hillel.
“Many of us took the Holocaust course and used the book,” she said. “It is a really amazing book and we wanted to hear more from him.”
Spiegelman developed his technique while a student at SUNY-Binghamton and became a creative consultant for Topps Chewing Gun, Inc.
He has illustrated covers for The New Yorker and has written several other books including The Complete Mr. Infinity.
In 1980, he founded Raw magazine, an annual showcase of avant-garde comics artists and writers.
Fountain said it will even be interesting for those unfamiliar with Maus. “He’s just an amazing author,” he said. “The speech will be really informative about a really important topic.”
Tickets for Spiegelman’s talk are on sale at the Common Market. They are $2 for students, faculty and staff with a valid UR ID and $5 for the general public.
Hildebrandt can be reached at thildebrandt@campustimes.org.
