Jewish American Pop Culture in the summer

Check out this intensive summer course, good for your popular culture concentration or general mind expansion. Professor Henry Bial, author of Acting Jewish: Negotiating Ethnicity on the American Stage and Screen, presides. Here is his description of the course:



AMS 344 / THR 380 / JWSH 300 -- Jewish American Pop Culture
MTWRF 11:30 am - 1:30 pm -- June 7 - July 1 (first four weeks of Summer session)

This course explores the dramatic and theatrical strategies used by Jewish American writers, directors, and actors to negotiate Jewish identity on the American stage and screen over the last 100 years. In addition to discussing the functions of these specific representations, we will also examine the performance-driven quality of identity in general. In what ways can Jewishness be viewed as a theatrical construction, both on and off the stage and screen? Our primary objects of study will be drawn from film and television, but we will also consider theatre, music, stand-up comedy, and the internet. Specific titles under consideration may include: Fiddler on the Roof, Seinfeld, Oklahoma!, The Jazz Singer, Family Guy, Annie Hall, Diary of Anne Frank, Angels in America, The Hebrew Hammer, The Goldbergs, Death of a Salesman, Gentleman’s Agreement, Licensed to Ill, A Serious Man, The Nanny.