Art Spiegelman, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel “Maus,” will speak about the firestorm surrounding his book via a free webinar Monday.
According to the Jewish Federation of Chattanooga, more than 4,000 attendees were registered by midday Friday.
Executive Director Michael Dzik said interest in the webinar, and the wider reaction to the controversy, has been heartwarming.
“We see this as an opportunity for dialogue and conversation and learning together,” he said by phone. “Really, the silver lining behind all of this is that it brings us closer together to have these kinds of conversations.”
“Maus” has been the subject of intense national discussion since the McMinn County school board in Athens, Tennessee, voted 10-0 to remove the work from the eighth-grade curriculum last month. The nonfiction work tells of the experiences of Spiegelman’s father, a Polish Jew who survived the Holocaust. Board members cited the book’s explicit language and nudity for their decision. The scene with nudity is a depiction of the author’s mother’s suicide in a bathtub.