Hillary Chute is an American literary scholar, an expert on comics and graphic narratives, and the comics and graphic novels columnist for The New York Times Book Review. She is also the Distinguished Professor of English and Art + Design at Northeastern University and the author or editor of seven titles on comics, including her book Why Comics? From Underground to Everywhere. It is hard to overstate the effect of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Art Spiegelman on postwar American culture. Maus has shaped the fields of literature, history, and art – and has often been at the center of debate, such as its recent ban from school language arts curricula in McMinn County, Tennessee. Richly illustrated with images from Spiegelman’s work, Maus Now: Selected Writing (Pantheon) collects responses to the work from writers such as Philip Pullman, Robert Storr, and Ruth Franklin, who examine it from various viewpoints and traditions. Organized into three loosely chronological sections – “Contexts,” “Problems of Representation,” and “Legacy” – Maus Now offers translations of important French, Hebrew, and German essays on Maus for the first time.
