SOURCE: Laga, Barry. “Maus, Holocaust, and History: Redrawing the Frame.” Arizona Quarterly 57, no. 1 (spring 2001): 61-90.

In the following essay, Laga contends that Maus offers a radical reconceptualization of how the Holocaust can be represented and comments that Spiegelman “offers us a new form of history that challenges linear notions of history and celebrates the productive desires of the posthistorical bricoleur.”

In an age when concentration camps become tourist attractions, Holocaust specials boost TV ratings, “Survivor” conferences benefit the local economy, and Holocaust films merit Oscars and pad Hollywood's pocketbook, one has to wonder if the Holocaust has become little more than just another commercially determined spectacle. We can easily imagine a time in the near future (if it hasn't happened already) when swastikas, Auschwitz tattoos, SS insignias, and camp uniforms will sell alongside peace signs, tie-dyed t-shirts, and Mao jackets. This fear of the market's ability to detach...