Limbă, Literatură, Folclor

DOI: https://doi.org/10.52505/llf.2026.1.11

Abstract:

This article examines the graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman through the lens of narrative metalepsis and the representation of transgenerational Holocaust trauma. The study highlights how the multimodal nature of the comics medium, through the interplay of text and image, becomes an innovative tool for exploring memory, authenticity, and testimony. It identifies three primary narrative levels: the father’s lived experience in Auschwitz, the son’s retelling of this experience, and the meta-narrative reflection on the process of representation. Frequent metaleptic transitions occur between these levels, producing temporal and diegetic overlaps that blur the boundaries between past and present, as well as between experience and representation. These dynamics contribute to the construction of a hybrid memory specific to the postmemory generation, as theorized by Marianne Hirsch. The analysis demonstrates that metalepsis functions as a key mechanism in the transmission of trauma, positioning the reader as an indirect witness to the Holocaust experience. In this sense, the graphic novel not only represents trauma but also critically reflects on the limits of representation and on the role of the second-generation narrator.

Keywords:  metalepsis,  graphic  novel,  Holocaust,  transgenerational  trauma, postmemory, visual narrative.