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When the Hebrew edition of this groundbreaking book came out, it provoked a stormy public debate. This is a new edition of "Israeli Cinema" with a substantial new postscript that reflects on the book's initial reception and points to exciting new trends in the cinematic representation of Israel and Palestine. Ella Shohat explores the cinema as a productive site of national culture, dating back to the early Zionist films about turn-of-the-century Palestine. She offers a deconstructionist reading of Zionism, viewing the cinema as itself participating in the 'invention' of the nation. Unthinking the Eurocentric imaginary of 'East versus West', Shohat highlights the paradoxes of an anomalous national/colonial project through a number of salient issues, including the Sabra figure as a negation of the 'Diaspora Jew', the iconography of the land of Israel as a denial of Palestine, and the narrative role of 'the good Arab'. The new postscript examines the emergence of a richly multiperspectival cinematic space that transcends earlier dichotomies through a palimpsestic and cross-border approach to Israel/Palestine.
Ella Shohat is Professor of Cultural Studies at New York University. Her books include 'Taboo Memories, Diasporic Voices', 'Talking Visions: Multicultural Feminism in a Transnational Age', and with Robert Stam 'Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media' and 'Flagging Patriotism: Crises of Narcissism and Anti-Americanism'.
Shohat's Israeli Cinema is a tour-de-force. Not only is it theoretically sophisticated, it is also deeply rooted in the changing politics and perceptions of the Israeli predicament as they bear upon Israeli films. With brilliant humanistic insight, Shohat describes the underlying ideological myths and allegoricalstructures and contributes significantly to a new, enlarged understanding of the dynamicsbetween Ashkenazi and Sephardic communities, and between them and the Palestinians.
– Edward Said
[A] new edition of Israeli Cinema with a substantial postscript that reflects on the book’s initial reception and points to exciting current trends in the cinematic representation of Israel and Palestine.
– Sight & Sound
Imprint: I.B.Tauris
Publisher: I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
Hardback
ISBN: 9781845113124
Publication Date: 30 Jul 2010
Number of Pages: 416
Height: 234
Width: 156
Paperback
ISBN: 9781845113131
Publication Date: 30 Jul 2010
Number of Pages: 416
Height: 234
Width: 156
When the Hebrew edition of this groundbreaking book came out, it provoked a stormy public debate. This is a new edition of "Israeli Cinema" with a substantial new postscript that reflects on the book's initial reception and points to exciting new trends in the cinematic representation of Israel and Palestine. Ella Shohat explores the cinema as a productive site of national culture, dating back to the early Zionist films about turn-of-the-century Palestine. She offers a deconstructionist reading of Zionism, viewing the cinema as itself participating in the 'invention' of the nation. Unthinking the Eurocentric imaginary of 'East versus West', Shohat highlights the paradoxes of an anomalous national/colonial project through a number of salient issues, including the Sabra figure as a negation of the 'Diaspora Jew', the iconography of the land of Israel as a denial of Palestine, and the narrative role of 'the good Arab'. The new postscript examines the emergence of a richly multiperspectival cinematic space that transcends earlier dichotomies through a palimpsestic and cross-border approach to Israel/Palestine.
Ella Shohat is Professor of Cultural Studies at New York University. Her books include 'Taboo Memories, Diasporic Voices', 'Talking Visions: Multicultural Feminism in a Transnational Age', and with Robert Stam 'Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media' and 'Flagging Patriotism: Crises of Narcissism and Anti-Americanism'.
Shohat's Israeli Cinema is a tour-de-force. Not only is it theoretically sophisticated, it is also deeply rooted in the changing politics and perceptions of the Israeli predicament as they bear upon Israeli films. With brilliant humanistic insight, Shohat describes the underlying ideological myths and allegoricalstructures and contributes significantly to a new, enlarged understanding of the dynamicsbetween Ashkenazi and Sephardic communities, and between them and the Palestinians.
– Edward Said
[A] new edition of Israeli Cinema with a substantial postscript that reflects on the book’s initial reception and points to exciting current trends in the cinematic representation of Israel and Palestine.
– Sight & Sound
Imprint: I.B.Tauris
Publisher: I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
HardbackISBN: 9781845113124
Publication Date: 30 Jul 2010
Number of Pages: 416
Height: 234
Width: 156
PaperbackISBN: 9781845113131
Publication Date: 30 Jul 2010
Number of Pages: 416
Height: 234
Width: 156