New Course for Fall 2014: FILM 299I/ISRL282

 Cinema and Zionism both emerged in Europe at the end of the nineteenth century—a coincidence that might be more than a fluke. In this class, we’ll ask about the relations between nationalism and film—about their mutually constitutive relationship; about the ways they support or grate against each other—all in the context of the formation of Israeli society and politics. In the history of Israel, culture has always served to articulate the broad goals of the Zionist project. Film—no less than literature or music—projected a unity of opinion and a shared communal understanding of the purposes of society as a whole. Culture serves this function in all societies. But in Israel, because of the turmoil surrounding its existence and the speed with which it developed, the mechanisms of culture’s role in coalescing a society around common aspirations has been much more profound and certainly more blatant than in most other settings.

 Our goal this semester will be to look at cinema’s role in the cultural formation of Israel’s identity. In particular, we will examine the development of national character by looking at how film presented on screen issues of individual identity within Zionism and within Israeli society at large. Cinema raises the major issues confronting Israeli society over the years, from the beginnings of filmic representations of Jewish pioneering in Palestine in the 1930s to recent challenges to normative Israeli identity, in particular as Israeli society has sought to rethink the role of religion, women, and militarism. In the end, questions will most likely overwhelm conclusions, but we should end up with a complex and vigorous set of issues that will put in relief the social and political contexts of Israeli existence.

Tu/Th 9:30-10:45

Core: HA/General Education: DSHU

Professor Eric Zakim