Adler, Asterios, & Maus

Adler, Asterios, & Maus examines how small visual decisions in illustrations make up a language. And when the dialect changes from the predominant one in a graphic novel, something novel happens. A scene or specific quality gets the spotlight. It also explores how these visuals tie to Adlerian psychology and El Refaeian ideas on autobiography, behavior, and emotion. It identifies through two interesting grpahic novels- Asterios Polyp by David Mazzuchelli and Maus by Art Spiegelman- how these ideas can be used to understand ourselves. It intensely zeroes in on specific moments of visual language shift. Some of these change range from simple elements like color or line weight or more complex elements like visual metaphors and tropes. Asterios Polyp and Maus make interesting and truly innovative decisions that add nuance to already compelling stories. We'll also dabble in and apply a scholarly analysis as we describe the perceived emotions and behaviors of characters. Ultimately, I claim that creative close looking and engagement with layered, emotional characters in these two graphic novels provides us with an avenue to process our emotions. Mazzuchelli, Spiegelman, El Refaie, and Adler implore us to look closely, move slowly, and make intentional decisions in our lives.