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Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies
Spring 2009
"Israeli Culture- Nationality, Gender, Ethnicity"
Dr. Miri Talmon-Bohm
Hebrew Studies 371 Lecture 2/ Jewish Studies 371 Lecture 2
Class hours: Monday & Wednesday, 4:00 – 5:15 pm
Class location: 383 Van Hise Hall
Office location: 1342 Van Hise Hall
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 2-3 PM
Please coordinate appointments in advance
E-Mail: talmonbohm@wisc.edu
Telephone: 608-262-2968
Course Description
This course examines topics and processes in Israeli culture through
contemporary Israeli cinema and television texts. We’ll examine
discourses of collective identity from various periods in cultural
Israeli history. Our analysis aims at describing changing
representations of nationality, the linkage between gender and
nationality in the cultural discourse, representations of ethnicity and
immigration, The Arab-Israeli conflict and its negotiation in Israeli
culture, discourses of place and their linkage to changing perceptions
of nationality, gender and ethnicity.
Course Requirements
Attendance
Students are expected to attend all classes and screenings (which
are incorporated into classes). In addition, students are expected to
attend all screenings of Israeli films on the UW Madison Israeli Film
Festival, which are an integral part of the course.
Attendance comprises 10 % of the course grade. Students who miss over
two classes will lose this component of the grade.
Oral presentation in class
At the beginning of each class three students will be asked to present their summary of the discussion and viewing in the previous class. Presentations will be up to 5 minutes long each. The grade for this oral presentation in class comprises 20% of your final grade.
Written Analysis Assignment
This written assignment requires a comparative analysis of two films,
focusing on aspects of nationality, gender and ethnicity as articulated
in these films. This assignment should be typed, 5 pages long,
about 2000 words.
You will be required to submit one such written analysis, 20 % for this
component of your final grade.
Critique of UW Madison Israeli Film Festival films
You are required to write one critical essay about TWO [2] UW
Madison Israeli Film Festival films of your choice. Your critical essay
for these films should be 2 pages long; in your essay you should give a
description of the films’ narrative and themes, and explain in what
ways they are relevant to our discussions in class.
This film review of 2 UW Madison Israeli Film Festival films comprises
10% of your final grade.
Final Papaer
The final paper is a comparative discussion of one topic (to be chosen from a list I will provide) which includes a comparative analysis of at least three Israeli films discussed in class or screened in the UW Israeli Film Festival. The final paper should be submitted no later than May 7, 2009, 7 PM. This final paper should be 6-8 pages long. It comprises 30% of your final grade.
Spring 2009 Jewish Heritage Lecture Series
You are required to attend one lecture offered by the
Mosse-Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies as Jewish Heritage Lecture
Series, and it is highly recommended that you consider attending all of
them. The program is detailed as an appendix to this syllabus.
A typed summary of the lecture you attended, 1-2 pages long, should be
submitted to me no later than one week after the lecture event. This
summary comprises 10% of your final grade.
Course Grade:
1. Attendance: 10%
2. One Oral presentation in class: 20%.
3. One written analysis assignment: 20 %
4. One written Film Festival Review: 10%
5. One written final Paper: 30% (to be submitted by May 7 2009, 7 PM,
6-10 pages).
6. One Jewish Heritage Lecture Series lecture summary: 10%
Class Syllabus and Viewing Schedule
Unit 1: Israeli Culture in a nutshell
January 21-January 28 2009
This unit provides a general introduction to Israeli society and
culture as well as an exposition of central themes in our future
discussions.
Film excerpts:
On the Frontline (Chanoch Zeevi, 2003)
Channels of Rage (Anat Halachmi 2003)
Black over White (The Idan Reichel Project) Tomer
Heyman, 2008
Israel Our Home, from the Documentary television
series Did Hertzl Really Say That? (Ido Bahat, 2007)
Unit 2. The Transparent Yarmulka: Israelis and their Judaism;
Religion and Secularism in Israel
February 2-February 11 2008
Television excerpts: Did Hertzl Really Say That- Transparent
Kippahs, Ido Bahat, 2005; Tel-Aviv Right- Jerusalem
Left, (Alon Sharvit, 2006); A touch Away (Ron
Ninio, 2007)
Film: Schwartz Dynasty (Hasfari and
Hasfari, 2005)
Unit 3. Ethnicities
February 16-February 25
3.1 The “Melting Pot” utopia and the “Bourekas” popular genre.
Excerpts: Sallah (Efraim Kishon, 1964); Fortuna
(Menahem Golan, 1966); Charly and a Half (Boaz
Davidson, 1974); Shuly's Fiance (Doron Tzabari, 1997).
3.2 From “Melting Pot” to Multiculturalism: The revised discourse of
ethnicity, immigration and absorption; the role of biography,
privatization of collective memory and second generation discourse;
gender and the re-vision of history.
Excerpts: Sh’chur (Hasfari, 1994); To Take a
Wife (Elkabetz and Elkabetz, 2004)
Film: Late Marriage (Kososhvily, 2001)
3.3 The impact of Globalization. Foreign workers; gender and
motherhood
Film: Noodle (Menachemi 2007)
Unit 4. Discourses of place
March 2-March 9
4.1 “The Kibbutz” as metaphor for changing ideologies and agendas in
Israeli culture; continuation of gender and motherhood discussion
Excerpts: He Walked Through the Fields (Milo, 1968)
Noa at Seventeen (Yeshurun, 1981)
Atalia (Tevet, 1984)
Children of the Sun (Ran Tal, 2007)
Film: Sweet Mud (Shaul, 2006)
4.2. Changing attitudes to the Middle-Eastern space: gendered and
ethnicized spaces
March 11, March 23-25
Film excerpts: The House on Sheloush Street (Moshe
Mizrahi, 1973)
Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi (HaKochavim shell Shlomi, ie:
Shlomi's Stars) Shemi Zarhin, 2003.
Film: Aviva My Love (Shemi Zarhin,
2006)
4.3 Tel Aviv as a gendered space
April 1-April 8 2009
a. The 1990s: Changing Paradigms and the Crisis of Masculinity: Israeli
versions of Film Noir.
Film excerpts: Peeping Toms (Zohar, 1972) Under Western Eyes (Pitchadze, 1996)
b. The Feminine Alternative
Excerpts: Nina’s Tragedies (Gavison, 2003)
Jelly Fish (Keret and Geffen, 2006)
Unit 5. Intercultural encounters articulating discourses of
nationality, ethnicity and gender
April 13-15 2008
Films: Fictitious Marriage (Haim Bouzaglo, 1988)
The Band’s Visit (Eran Kolirin, 2007)
Unit 6
Changing paradigms of nationality, gender and ethnicity: feminization
of the cultural
agenda and nostalgia for ethnic folklore.
April 20-22 2008
Film excerpts: Gotta Have Heart (Fox 1997); Wisdom of the Pretzel (Ilan Heitner, 2002); Something Sweet, (Turgemann, 2004).
Unit 7. Personal films, collective identity: negotiations of
gender, ethnicity, and nationality in personal films
April 27, May 5-6 2009
Film Excerpts: Ever Shot Anyone? (Michal Aviad,1996)
First Lesson in Peace (Yoram Honig, 2005) Say
Amen (David Deri, 2003); For My Children (Michal
Aviad, 2002) Out for Love Love, Be Back Shortly (Dan
Katzir, 1997).
Additional Resources of Information
1. The Internet Movie Data Base provides you with information about films, directors, producers, cast, production year, awards, synopsis and reviews. You can find the necessary information about the films we discuss, and others you are curious about, and add your own reviews.
2. The virtual Jewish library can be used as a resource for basic
information and definitions of concepts in Israeli history you are not
familiar with.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/
Appendix:
Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies Spring 2009 Jewish
Heritage Lecture Series
For More information consult the Center's website: <jewishstudies.wisc.edu>
*“A Reading from H.G. Adler's ‘The Journey’ ”
Peter Filkins
Tuesday, February 10th - 4 pm - Pyle Center (702 Langdon)
*“Art and Politics”
Professor Renata Stih and Doctor Frieder Schnock
Thursday, February 19th - 4 pm – Pyle Center (702 Langdon)
*“The Palestinian Refugees as a Jewish Question: The Lost Voice of
Simon
Rawidowicz”
Professor David Myers
Thursday, March 26th – 4 pm – Pyle Center (702 Langdon)
*Stanford J. Ettinger Lecture
"Israel's First Sixty Years: Achievements and Challenges"
Dr. Robert O. Freedman
Wednesday, April 1ST–7 pm–Memorial Union (800 Langdon)
*Kutler Lectures
Professor David Hollinger
“Jews, Multiculturalism, and American Ethnoracial and Religious History”
Monday, April 13th - 4 pm - Pyle Center (702 Langdon)
“American Jewish History in a Post-Jewish Domain”
Tuesday, April 14th - 4 pm - Pyle Center (702 Langdon)
*Paul J. Schrag Lecture
"In Rivers North of the Future: Paul Celan's Poetry and Thought”.
Professor Amir Eshel
Thursday, April 23rd – 7 pm – Pyle Center
*KlezKamp Roadshow with Henry Sapoznik
Saturday, Sunday, and Monday
April 18th, 19th, and 20th
More details soon on the Conney Project website
<conneyproject.wisc.edu/>
*2009 Conney Project on Jewish Arts Conference:
“Performing Histories, Inscribing Jewishness”
Wednesday - Friday, April 22nd-24th - Grainger Hall (975 University
Avenue)
More details soon on the Conney Project website
<conneyproject.wisc.edu/>
*“Ancient Synagogues in the Land of Israel”
Professor Jodi Magness
Tuesday, April 28th – 7:30 pm - Pyle Center (702 Langdon)
For more details, please contact the
Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies at (608) 262-3204