Frame Narratives in Maus and A Film Unfinished

Introduction: Frame Narratives and Holocaust Representation

Frame narratives are important literary tools. They engage the audience by providing an anchor in the contemporary universe — a perspective to which the audience can instantly relate. In both Art Spiegelman's graphic novel Maus and Yael Hersonski's documentary A Film Unfinished, a frame narrative is used, and it serves a distinct structural and semantic function. The frame narratives in these respective works about the Holocaust help their creators represent traumatic events on individual, personal, social, and collective levels.

The events depicted in both Maus and A Film Unfinished are challenging to comprehend on a conceptual level, which is why their media formats are also nuanced and complex. Furthermore, both works challenge the audience to engage with history on a level that goes beyond documentary evidence. Human memory is mingled with impressions, emotions, and other subjective material. This allows the two works to resemble traditional memoirs and narratives even though they are not. A traditional narrative such as Ruth Kluger's Still Alive is simply another form of media, but the end result is the same: to help the audience come to terms with the varied experiences and perceptions of the Holocaust.

Maus as Autobiographical Graphic Novel

In Maus, the reader encounters illustrations that make no pretense of being documentary evidence. Although Maus is autobiographical, it is rendered in graphic novel format. This creates a dreamlike world for the audience and can convey trauma in ways that Art, his father, and other characters could not achieve if forced to rely on photographs alone.

There are other scenes in Maus, however, that do resemble the actual documentary evidence many readers will have already encountered, or can encounter when viewing A Film Unfinished. One such scene depicts the Nazis — rendered as cats — in a massive crowd at a Nazi rally. The scene invokes the mass consciousness of the German public during the Holocaust and asks readers to contemplate uncomfortable issues, such as the willingness of the anti-Semitic populace to accept the Final Solution alongside their party leaders. A nearly identical scene takes place in A Film Unfinished; unlike in Maus, however, this crowd scene is a piece of actual documentary evidence.

Juxtaposing the real with the imaginary is one of the primary reasons Maus is so successful as a work. As a graphic novel, Maus fuses different modes of communication to allow the audience to connect with the reality of trauma. The audience is expected to read it for what it is: an autobiographical account of what it means to be the son of a Holocaust survivor. Just as a viewer does not mistake a Hollywood film for reality, the viewer generally does not mistake a graphic novel as depicting literal real life — yet Maus is meant to serve as a meaningful substitute for photographs, films, and other primary source materials.

Conclusion: Storytelling and Collective Memory

Both Maus and A Film Unfinished use frame narratives as a means to reconnect with the audience periodically, ensuring that audiences remain emotionally and intellectually engaged with Holocaust history. It is important to retell these stories so that audiences will never forget. The frame narrative shows that the present continually recreates the past, as new material is discovered and new voices are heard. Regardless of medium — graphic novel, documentary film, or personal memoir — the purpose remains the same: to ensure that the varied experiences and perceptions of the Holocaust are never lost.

Works Cited

Hersonski, Yael. A Film Unfinished. [Feature Film]. Oscilloscope, 2010.

Kluger, Ruth. Still Alive. Feminist Press, 2003.

Spiegelman, Art. Maus. Pantheon, 1991.