ABSTRACT
Art Spiegelman’s Maus: A Survivor’s Tale is one of the most influential works in contemporary fiction and, undoubtedly, the most important graphic novel of all time. This text has proved that the narrative iconical language of graphic novels can be suitable for any topic, in equal terms to any other genre. When its second volume was released in 1991, it had utterly changed the world of comic books. Thus, with only the first part of the work in his hands, forefather of Comics studies, Joseph Witek, already endorsed its unparalleled value. “Though Spiegelman’s project is as yet unfinished,” affirmed Witek, “the unprecedented critical reception of Maus has changed, perhaps forever, the cultural perception of what a comic book can be” (96). Spiegelman’s idea disseminated beyond the world of comic books and managed to reach the sphere of academic criticism through readings offered by Linda Hutcheon, Dominick LaCapra, Andreas Huyssen, Marianne Hirsch, Anne Whitehead, or Michael Rothberg, among many others.
