'You Should See Yourself': Jewish Identity in Postmodern American Culture

Vincent Brook

Published by Rutgers University Press 2006

'You Should See Yourself'

Jewish Identity in Postmodern American Culture

Vincent Brook

https://doi.org/10.36019/9780813539966

Overview
Contents

About this book

The past few decades have seen a remarkable surge in Jewish influences on American culture. Entertainers and artists such as Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandler, Allegra Goodman, and Tony Kushner have heralded new waves of television, film, literature, and theater; a major klezmer revival is under way; bagels are now as commonplace as pizza; and kabbalah has become as cool as crystals. Does this broad range of cultural expression accurately reflect what it means to be Jewish in America today?

Bringing together fourteen new essays by leading scholars, You Should See Yourself examines the fluctuating representations of Jewishness in a variety of areas of popular culture and high art, including literature, the media, film, theater, music, dance, painting, photography, and comedy. Contributors explore the evolution that has taken place within these cultural forms and how we can best explain these changes. Are variations in our understanding of Jewishness the result of general phenomena such as multiculturalism, politics, and postmodernism, or are they the product of more specifically Jewish concerns such as the intermarriage/continuity crisis, religious renewal, and relations between the United States and Israel?

Accessible to students and general readers alike, this volume takes an important step toward advancing the discussion of Jewish cultural influences in this country.

Author / Editor information

Vincent Brook is the author of Something Ain't Kosher Here: The Rise of the "Jewish" Sitcom. He is an adjunct professor of film, television, and cultural studies at the University of Southern California; California State University, Los Angeles; and Los Angeles Pierce College.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction: Seeing Isn’t Believing Vincent Brook Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Literature
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
Re-imagining the Jew’s Body: From Self-Loathing to “Grepts” Andrea Most Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	19
Recalling “Home” from Beneath the Shadow of the Holocaust: American Jewish Women Writers of the New Wave Janet Handler Burstein Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	37
Theater
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
“Your World Is Very Different from Mine”: Troubling Jewish Identity in Postmodern American Theater Jan Lewis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
Tony Kushner’s Metaphorical Jew James Fisher Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	76
Music
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
Exploring the Postmodern Landscape of Jewish Music Judah M. Cohen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
Continuity, Creativity, and Conflict: The Ongoing Search for “Jewish” Music Marsha Bryan Edelman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
Dance
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
The Jewish Man and His Dancing Shtick: Stock Characterization and Jewish Masculinity in Postmodern Dance Rebecca Rossen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
Painting and Photography
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
Between Exile and Irony: Modernism, Postmodernism, and Jewish Modes of Thought Ruth Weisberg Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
Observant Jews and the Photographic Arena of Looks MacDonald Moore and Deborah Dash Moore Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	176
Film
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
Joke-Work: The Construction of Jewish Postmodern Identity in Contemporary Theory and American Film Ruth D. Johnston Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
They All Are Jews Daniel Itzkovitz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	230
Stand-up Comedy
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
Genealogies of Jewish Stand-up: Looking Back, Moving Beyond Donald Weber Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
Television
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
Something Old Is New Again? Postmodern Jewishness in Curb Your Enthusiasm, Arrested Development, and The O.C. Michele Byers and Rosalin Krieger Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	277
“Y’all Killed Him, We Didn’t!” Jewish Self-Hatred and The Larry Sanders Show Vincent Brook Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	298
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	319
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	323

Language: English
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 352
Illustrations
- Other: 45

eBook

Published: July 24, 2006
ISBN: 9780813539966