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

Brook, Vincent

3.14

7 ratings by Goodreads

9780813538457: 'You Should See Yourself': Jewish Identity in Postmodern American Culture

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813538459 ISBN 13: 9780813538457

Publisher: Rutgers University Press, 2006

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

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.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

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.

Review:

"A fine addition to scholarship, lending valuable insights into how contemporary American Jewish identity is both reflected and refracted in the postmodern age." - Lester Friedman, author of Hollywood's Image of the Jew"

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.