Holocaust graphic novel ‘Maus’ banned by school board due to nudity and language concerns
ART | “Maus,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the experiences of Holocaust survivors, has been removed from an eighth-grade English language arts curriculum by a Tennessee school board over concerns about “rough, objectionable language” and a drawing of a nude woman.
The McMinn County Board of Education voted 10-0 to remove the book from the curriculum, saying it should be replaced, if possible, with another book without content deemed objectionable.
“Maus” is a graphic novel by comic artist Art Spiegelman that follows his Jewish parents in 1940s Poland from their early experiences of anti-Semitism to their internment in Auschwitz. The novel is intercut with the young author’s attempts to coax the story out of his father as an old man. It depicts Jewish people as mice and Nazis as cats.
The minutes of the January 10 meeting show McMinn County Director of Schools Lee Parkison addressed the board about the book before voting took place.
“The values of the county are understood. There is some rough, objectionable language in this book and knowing that and hearing from many of you and discussing it, two or three of you came by my office to discuss that,” Parkison said.
Parkison said he spoke to an attorney and suggested redacting the profanity and the drawing of the woman, according to the minutes posted on the school board’s website. But the board discussed concerns over copyright issues they may face for altering the book.
Ultimately, the board reached the unanimous vote to remove the book after discussing other aspects surrounding the decision, including state regulations, the core curriculum and the possibility of finding a book to replace “Maus.”
CNN has reached out to Parkison and all members of the McMinn County School Board for further comment on the decision.
“I’m trying to, like, wrap my brain around it,” Spiegelman said on CNN’s “New Day” when asked for his reaction in an interview Thursday.
“I moved past total bafflement to try to be tolerant of people who may possibly not be Nazis, maybe,” the author said, noting it did not appear based on the meeting that the board wanted the book removed because the author was Jewish.
“They’re totally focused on some bad words that are in the book,” he said. “I can’t believe the word ‘damn’ would get the book jettisoned out of the school on its own.”
Regarding the nudity, Spiegelman said the image in question was a “tiny image” that depicted his mother being found in a bathtub after she cut her wrists. “You have to really, like, want to get your sexual kicks by projecting on it,” he said.
“I think they’re so myopic in their focus and they’re so afraid of what’s implied and having to defend the decision to teach ‘Maus’ as part of the curriculum that it lead to this kind of daffily myopic response,” the author said.
In response to the book’s removal, the US Holocaust Museum said it’s important for students to learn the history described in the novel.
“Maus has played a vital role in educating about the Holocaust through sharing detailed and personal experiences of victims and survivors,” the museum said in a twitter post. “Teaching about the Holocaust using books like Maus can inspire students to think critically about the past and their own roles and responsibilities today.”
Source: CNN
