The McMinn County School Board recently voted 10-0 to ban Maus, a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel by Art Spiegelman, citing the book’s inclusion of profane language and female nudity as reasons.
Maus tells the story of Spiegelman’s Jewish parents’ experiences in Nazi concentration camps, the mass murder of Jewish people by the Nazis, and Spiegelman’s relationships with his parents. When asked by The Tennessee Holler, the board denied that their decision had anything to do with the book being about the Holocaust.
The vote occurred on 10 January 2022 but didn’t catch the media’s attention until two weeks later. Spiegelman learned about it a day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day through a Twitter post. He called the ban “Orwellian” and said that he suspected it was the result of Maus being about the Holocaust, rather than the language or images in it.
The McMinn County Board of Education posted a statement after the ban began receiving media attention, saying Maus was removed from its schools “because of its unnecessary use of profanity and nudity and its depiction of violence and suicide. Taken as a whole the board felt this work was simply too adult-oriented for use in our schools.”
The board added that it doesn’t “diminish the value of Maus as an impactful and meaningful piece of literature, nor do we dispute the importance of teaching our children the historical and moral lessons and realities of the Holocaust.”
The Anti-Defamation League, NAACP, and U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, among other organizations, have criticized the ban and noted Maus’ role in teaching children about the horrors of the Holocaust.
Although Maus has been banned in McMinn County Schools, its popularity appears to be skyrocketing. On 31 January 2022, The Complete Maus hit second in Amazon’s overall bestseller category and first in history. The first instalment of the novel hit first in second world war history and variations of the novel hit first, second, and third in literary graphic novels.
Words by Avantika Singh
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