Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T21:12:37.160Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

12 - Jews and Film

from Drama

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2015

Hana Wirth-Nesher
Affiliation:
Tel-Aviv University
Get access

Summary

Hollywood, as F. Scott Fitzgerald's self-pitying comment unwittingly suggests, was a place where Jewish and gentile fantasies mixed, met, and collaborated - in part because the former had to attract and the latter as part of their business. This chapter discusses four moments in the history of Jews and Hollywood: D. W Griffith's Musketeers of Pig Alley; Warner Brothers' Jazz Singer; Barbra Streisand's Yentl; Coen Brothers' A Serious Man. These films show the kinds of contortions and compromises by which Jews entered film first as objects then as (ambivalent) subjects; they demonstrate as well how Jews use the film industries to carve out new (and not unproblematic) itineraries for themselves in eras of ethnic revival, gender revolution, and postmodern hybrid identity formations challenging the very category Jew itself. A Serious Man tells us about Jews in the unfolding narrative of post-Hollywood film, and tells us about the concerns of baby-boomer generation Jews like the Coens.
Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×