Jewish Studies 191

The Role of Jews in American Film and Television

UCLA, Spring 2009

Tuesday/Thursday, 4 – 5:30 pm; Public Affairs 2214

Professor Vincent Brook;

Email: vbrook@earthlink.net

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

As J. Hoberman and Jeffrey Shandler note in Entertaining America: Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting (2003) that the relationship between Jews and the American entertainment media has provoked one of the most extensive public discussions of identity and culture in this country over the past century. This highly charged subject has been debated by Jews and gentiles, anti-Semites and philo-Semites, industry and scholarly observers, fiction writers and journalists. The history of this discourse reveals shifting notions of Jewish distinctiveness in America, and, more generally, of identity politics in the public sphere.

“The Role of Jews in American Film and Television” focuses on images of and by Jews in the two mass media in which the discussion of American Jewish influence, expression, and identity figures most prominently. Drawing on seminal academic and journalistic studies, as well as on pivotal film and television texts, the course explores the history and current state of Jewish media representation and representability. Representation is used here in the dual sense of screen images and behind-the-scenes influence. Representability refers to the historical discrepancy and ongoing dialectical relation between these two facets, a discrepancy and dialectic which has been both alleviated and problematized by Jews’ increasing acceptance in U.S. society.

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Vincent Brook, Something Ain’t Kosher Here: The Rise of the “Jewish” Sitcom

Neal Gabler, An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood

Course Reader (CR)

SUPPLEMENTARY TEXTS:

Joyce Antler, ed., Talking Back: Images of Jewish Women in Popular American Culture

Vincent Brook, ed., You Should See Yourself: Jewish Identity in Postmodern American Culture

Steven Carr: Hollywood and Anti-Semitism: A Cultural History up to World War II

Leonard Dinnerstein, Antisemitism in America

Lawrence J. Epstein, The Haunted Smile: The History of Jewish Comedians in America

Partricia Erens: The Jew in American Cinema

Lester D. Friedman, The Jewish Image in American Film

Shelley Hornstein and Florence Jacobowitz, ed., Image and Remembrance: Representation and the Holocaust
J. Hoberman and Jeffrey Shandler, Entertaining America: Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting

Annette Insdorf: Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust

Victor S. Navasky, Naming Names

Jonathan Pearl and Judith Pearl, The Chosen Image: Television’s Portrayal of Jewish Themes and Characters

Jon Stratton, Coming Out Jewish

Stephen J. Whitfield, In Search of American Jewish Culture

Ruth Wisse, The Schlemiel as Modern Hero

REQUIREMENTS:

• All assignments must be completed to receive a grade in the class.
• Late papers or assignments are graded docked 1/3 grade for the first late day and an additional 1/3 grade for each two late days.
• Good attendance and punctuality are expected. Absences not only affect your class participation grade but can affect your overall grade as well. You must have attended at least half the class sessions to pass the course. Punctuality factors into attendance. Arriving noticeably late or leaving early (unexcused) results in a 1/2 absence.
• Class participation is encouraged, and can affect your grade positively (see Evaluation)
• Cheating on exams or plagiarism in writing assignments is grounds for failing the class.

EVALUATION:

Term Paper: 30%

Midterm Exam: 30%

Final Exam: 30%

Participation: 10%

GRADING:

97-100% = A+, 93-96% = A, 90-92% = A-, 87-89% = B+, etc.

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SCHEDULE AND AGENDA

(Readings and screenings are subject to change;

generally film/TV clips will be shown rather than entire films or episodes)

Week 1: March 31/April 2

Class 1A: Introduction

Course structure, historical context

Screening: Hollywoodism: Jews, Movies, and the American Dream (Part 1)

Class 1B: Immigrant Audiences/Jewish Entrepreneurs

The movies begin, and the Nickelodeon Era

Reading: Gabler, 1-46; Hoberman/Shandler (CR)

Screening: Hollywoodism: Jews, Movies, and the American Dream (Part 2)

Week 2: April 7/9

Class 2A: Hollywood as Sin City/Jewish Trope

Hollywood becomes U.S. movie capital, Jews become movie moguls

Reading: Gabler, 79-119

Screening: What Price Hollywood?; Barton Fink

Class 2B: Old World/New World, Part 1

Survivalism and Assimilation

Reading: Hoberman/Shandler (CR); Rosenberg (CR)

Screening: The Jazz Singer (1927) (Part 1)

Week 3: April14/16

Class 3A: Old World/New World, Part 2

Assimilation and Interfaith Marriage

Reading: Gabler, 120-150

Screening: The Jazz Singer (1927) (Part 2)

Class 3B: Hollywood’s “Jewish Question,” Part 1

Anti-Semitism and Hollywood

Reading: Gabler, 266-310; Hoberman/Shandler (CR)

Screening: TBA

Week 4: April 21/23

Class 4A: Hollywood’s “Jewish Question,” Part 2

Anti-Semitism and Jewish Self-Hatred

Reading: Brook, 1-17 (CR)

Screening: The Believer

Class 4B: Postwar Jewishness, Part 1

The First U.S. films about Anti-Semitism

Reading: Erens (CR)

Screening: Gentleman’s Agreement documentary

Week 5: April 28/30

Class 5A: Postwar Jewishness, Part 2

Philo-Semitism, and new Jewish Stereotypes

Reading: Erens (CR)

Screening: Goodbye Columbus

Class 5B: The Blacklist, Part 1

McCarthyism and Anti-Semitism

Readings: Navasky, 97-143, 347-370 (CR)

Screenings: Hollywood on Trial: The Legacy of the Blacklist (Part 1)

Week 6: May 5/7

Class 6A: The Blacklist, Part 2

McCarthysim and Anti-Semitism (Continued)

Reading: Lewis, 3-30 (CR)

Screening: Hollywood on Trial: The Legacy of the Blacklist (Part 2)

Class 6B: MIDTERM

Week 7: May 12/14

Class 7A: The Holocaust, Part 1

The Holocaust as Historical Event and Cultural Sign

Reading: Insdorf, xi-xix, 3-42 (CR)

Screening: Hollywood and the Holocaust, Part 1

Class 7B: The Holocaust, Part 2

Evolving Representations of the Holocaust

 Reading: Insdorf, 43-74, 259-267, 285-292 (CR)

Screening: Hollywood and the Holocaust, Part 2

Week 8: May 19/21

Class 8A: Jews and Television, Part 1

Ethnic, Working-Class TV

Readings: Brook, 21-42

Screening: The Goldbergs

TERM PAPER PROSPECTUS DUE!

Class 8B: Jews and Television, Part 2

From Great Retreat to Flickering Revival

Reading: Brook, 43-65

Screening: Bridget Loves Bernie; Rhoda

Week 9: May 26/28

Class 9A: The “Jewish” Sitcom Trend, Part 1

Unprecedented upsurge in “Jewish”TV from the late 1980s on

Reading: Brook, 66-147

Screening: Friends; The Larry Sanders Show

Class 9B: The “Jewish” Sitcom Trend, Part 2

The latest “Jewish” TV

Reading: Brook, 148-180

Screening: Curb Your Enthusiasm

TERM PAPER DUE!

Week 10: June 2/4

Class 10A: Where We’re At, Where We’re Going

Summary and Review

Reading: None

Screening: TBA

Class 10B:

FINAL EXAM

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TERM PAPER PROSPECTUS

By the start of the 8^th week—latest—send an email stating the film or TV show you will be analyzing and the theoretical frame you will be using for your analysis (see Term Paper Guidelines below). Any other ideas or questions you have about the paper are also welcome.

TERM PAPER GUIDELINES

I. Due: End of 10^th week.

II. Length: 5-7 pages (typed, double-spaced, 12-point font, 1-inch margins)

III. Topic:

              A. Expand on one of the class topics—assimilation, intermarriage, anti-Semitism, self-hatred, the Blacklist, the Holocaust, etc.—analyzing the topic in relation to a film or television show.

              B. Incorporate assigned readings on the topic, as well as at least two outside academic sources. Additional sources are encouraged.

              C. Provide historical context for the topic and the film/TV show.

              D. Include a close reading, or textual analysis, of the film/TV episode.

IV. Method:

              A. Title Page:

                            1. Title of essay, with main title and subtitle (puns are encouraged), e.g.:

Pay Per Jew:

Jewish Self-Hatred in It’s Like, You Know…

                            2. Name; course number; term.

              B. Introduction:

                          1. State your topic, and what film/TV show you’ll use to examine it.

                          2. State what you hope to demonstrate about the topic through the analysis of the film/TV show.

                          3. In identifying the film, give the director and release date;  e.g., Schindler’s List (Steven Spielberg, 1993); for a TV show, give the years of the original run in parentheses; e.g., Seinfeld (1989-1998).

            C. Body:

                            1. Proceed with your analysis, providing explanatory material and historical context for the topic and the film/TV show.

                          2. Incorporate your readings in a way that furthers your argument.

                          3. As much as possible, but only with secure understanding, use technical terms derived from lecture and readings.

                            4. Try to stick to your thesis. Extraneous information should be edited out or relegated to content footnotes.

                            5. All research sources must be cited, whether drawn on indirectly or quoted directly, using one of the approved citation methods (MLA, CMS, APA).

              D. Conclusion:

                            1. Summarize your findings, avoiding redundancy.

                            2. End with a strong statement that gives a clear sense of what you have tried to show.

              E. Notes or Works Cited page

V. Additional Pointers:

              A. Make sure to number your pages!

              B. Underline or put in italics all titles (films, TV shows, books, etc.).

              C.  When referring to individuals, give the full name the first time they are mentioned, thereafter only the second name: e.g., “Neil Gabler makes a provocative argument regarding Jewish influence on the film industry in An Empire of Their Own. Gabler’s analysis is flawed, however, for the following reasons.”  

              D. When describing film/TV show content, use the present tense: e.g., “In Seinfeld, George Costanza appears to be Jewish but is identified within the text as non-Jewish.”

              E. To indicate films’/shows’ historical relations, however, use the past tense: e.g., “Seinfeld was the most successful sitcom of the 1990s, both from a ratings and a critical standpoint.”

              F. No plot summaries! Do include story information, but only enough to give the overall idea of the film/show and to support the thematic points of your paper, not as “padding.”

              G. No plagiarism! This will result in an automatic Fail for the assignment and, depending on the egregiousness of the infraction, possibly for the class as well.

              H. Enjoy!