Acting Jewish : negotiating ethnicity on the American stage & screen /
Acting Jewish : Negotiating ethnicity on the American stage and screen Negotiating ethnicity on the American stage & screen Negotiating ethnicity on the American stage and screen
Henry Bial.
- viii, 195 pages ; 24 cm
Includes bibliographical references (pages 179-188) and index.
Performance, studies, mass culture, and the Jewish problem -- Acting Jewish, 1947-1955 -- Fiddling on the roof, 1964-1971 -- How Jews became sexy, 1968-1983 -- The desire to remember, 1989-1997 -- You know who else is Jewish? : reading and writing Jewish in the twenty-first century. Ch. 1. Ch. 2. Ch. 3. Ch. 4. Ch. 5. Ch. 6.
"The history of the American entertainment industry and the history of the Jewish people in the United States are inextricably intertwined. Jews have provided Broadway and Hollywood with some of their most enduring talent, from writers like Arthur Miller, Wendy Wasserstein, and Tony Kushner; to directors like Jerome Robbins and Woody Allen; to performers like Gertrude Berg, John Garfield, Lenny Bruce, and Barbra Streisand. Conversely, show business has provided Jews with a means of upward mobility, a model for how to "become American," and a source of cultural pride. Acting Jewish documents this history, looking at the work of Jewish writers, directors, and actors in the American entertainment industry with particular attention to the ways in which these artists offer behavioral models for Jewish-American audiences. The book spans the period from 1947 to the present and takes a close look at some of America's favorite plays (Death of a Salesman, Fiddler on the Roof, Angels in America), films (Gentleman's Agreement, Annie Hall), and television shows (The Goldbergs, Seinfeld), identifying a double-coding by which performers enact, and spectators read, Jewishness in contemporary performance-and, by extension, enact and read other minority identities. The book thus explores and illuminates the ever-changing relationship between Jews and mainstream American culture."Fascinating and original . . . Bial's command of sources is impressive, and his concept of 'double-coding' is convincing . . . the book should have no trouble finding a large audience."-Barbara Grossman, author of Funny Woman: The Life and Times of Fanny BriceHenry Bial is Assistant Professor of Theatre and Film, University of Kansas. He is editor of the Performance Studies Reader and co-editor of the Brecht Sourcebook."--Publisher description.
0472099086 9780472099085 047206908X 9780472069088
2005014439
Jews in the performing arts--United States Jews in motion pictures Jews on television American drama--History and criticism--20th century Jews in literature