Ilana SzobelNEJS 178A
, Th 3:30 - 4:50
Office hours: T, Th 12:00-1:00Fall 2015
Love, Sex, and Power in Israeli Culture
This course aims to explore representations of romantic love within Modern Hebrew literature and Israeli society. We will read and discuss a selection of influential literary texts and theoretical research on love, marriage, romance, jealousy, and troubled relationships. Supplementary to the readings, we will try to re-establish the cultural framework of the texts by incorporating into the course and into our discussions excerpts of Israeli music, works of art, and films.
Within a socio-cultural framework, we will study the repertoire of feelings, values, interests, expectations, and stereotypes that are associated with the term Love and its representations. By focusing on gender roles, cultural contexts, generational differences, social classes, and power relationships, we will suggest a critical context for understanding Western, Hebrew, and Israeli concepts of love.
By offering various strategies for reading—such as close reading, feminist theories, postcolonial thought, and psychoanalysis—the course will focus on the textualization of love. In our readings we will raise different questions, such as: What types of love do these texts present? How is love imagined in the texts? What kind of psychological, political, or national purpose does it serve? To what extent is love at the foundation of national and political communities? What is the relationship between these feelings and the institution of heterosexual marriage? What images of femininity and masculinity are presented in the texts? What can be said about the interaction between the sexes?
Course Requirements
Attendance and participation are particularly important and will count as part of the course grade. Students are expected to prepare for each class, participate in class discussion, present a short talk, and hand in written assignments in a timely manner.
The final grade will be calculated as follows:
Attendance, participation, and oral presentation – 20%
Midterm paper – 40%
Final paper – 40%
- Each unit is approximately two weeks.
- The vast majority of readings may be found on LATTE.
- Thursday, October 15, 2015: Midterm Paper due in class.
- Tuesday, December 8, 2015: Final Paper due in class.
Preparation time
Success in this 4 credithourcourse is based on the expectation that students will spend a minimum of9hoursof study time per week in preparation for class (readings, papers, discussion sections, preparation for exams, etc.).
Introduction - What Is This Thing Called Love?
The Book of Esther 1 – 2: 5
Barbara Cohn Schlachet and Barbara Waxenberg, “What Is This Thing Called Love? The Popular Ballad as a Framework for Changing Conception of Love,” Love: Psychoanalytic Perspectives, Judith F. Lansky & Helen W. Silverman (eds.), 1988.
Mary Evans: selection from Love: An Unromantic Discussion (2003)
Unit 1 - The Woman in the Window: Love, Stereotypes, and Femininity
- ”You, My Freedom,” Lyrics: Georges Moustaki, Music: Chava Alberstein
- Cindy Sherman, Anisa Ashkar, Hila Lulu Lin, Zoya Cherkassky
Esther Raab: “I Under the Thornbush” (1922), “Woman’s Portrait” (1962)
Leah Goldberg: “There are Many Like Me,” “He Will Not Believe” (1935)
Dan Miron: “Why Was There No Women’s Poetry in Hebrew Before 1920?” Gender and text in Modern Hebrew and Yiddish literature, Naomi B. Sokoloff, Anne Lapidus Lerner, and Anita Norich (eds.), 1992
Betty Friedan: “The Problem That Has No Name,” The Feminine Mystique (1963)
Kate Millett: “Theory of Sexual Politics,” Sexual Politics, Chapter 2 (1970)
Judith Butler: selection from Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990)
Unit2 - The Bourgeois in Love: Family and Desires
- “Two Small Love Stories,” music and lyrics: Micha Shitrit and Arkadi Duchin
Zelda (Shneorson Mishkovsky): “When You Were Here” (1971)
Natan Zach: “A Poem to the Wise Lovers” (1960)
David Fogel: Facing the Sea (1932)
Roland Barthes: selection from Mythologies (1972 [1957]), and A lover's discourse: fragments (1978)
Hannah Naveh: “Facing the Sea,” Men and Women Travelers: Travel Narratives in Modern Hebrew Literature (2002)
Unit 3 - The Shadow of Love: “Romantic” Jealousy
Nathan Alterman: “The Stranger,” “Ancient Melody” (1957)
Shmuel Y. Agnon: “The Doctor's Divorce” (1967)
Orit Kamir: “Overwhelming Love – or Stalking? An Analysis of Stalking Law, Israeli Literature, Honor and Dignity.” Trails of Love, Orna Ben Naftali and Hana Naveh (eds.), 2005, 472-526.
Ella Shohat: “Making the Silences Speak in Israeli Cinema,” Israeli Women's Studies, Esther Fuchs (ed.) (2005)
Orly Lubin: “The Woman as Other in Israeli Cinema,” Israeli Women's Studies, Esther Fuchs (ed.) (2005)
Unit4 - The Love That Dare (Not) Speak Its Name:Queer Love
- Yossi and Jagger, directed by Eytan Fox, written by Avner Bernheimer (2002)
Yehudit Katzir: “Closing the Sea” (1990)
Sharon Hass: selection from The Mountain Mother is Gone (1997)
Adrienne Rich: ”Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,” Adrienne Rich’s Poetry and Prose, A. Gelpi and B.C. Gelpi (eds.), 1993 [1980].
Raz Yosef: “Cannon Fodder: National Death, Homoeroticism, and Male Masochism in the Military Film” Beyond Flesh: Queer Masculinities and Nationalism in Israeli Cinema (2004)
Unit 5 - For Love of Country: Love and Nationalism
- The Syrian Bride, directed by Eran Riklis, written by Suha Arraf andEran Riklis (2004)
Amos Oz: My Michael (1968)
Esther Fuchs: “Images of Love and War in Contemporary Israeli Fiction: Toward a Feminist Re-Vision,” Modern Judaism, Vol. 6, No. 2 (1986).
Nurith Gertz: “Amos Oz and Izhak Ben Ner: The Image of Woman in Literary Works, and as Transvalued in Film Adaptations,” Israeli Writers Consider the “Outsider,” Leon I. Yudkin (ed.) (1993)
Manar Hasan: “The Politics of Honor: Patriarchy, the State, and the Murder of Women in the Name of Family Honor,” Israeli Family and Community: Women’s Time, Hannah Naveh(ed.) (2003)
Yael Berda: “The Erotics of the Occupation,” Ma’arav Hebrew (2006)
Unit 6 - Sexuality and Disability
oNext to Her (At Li Layla), directed by Asaf Korman (2014)
Margrit Shildrick: “Queering Performativity: Disability After Deleuze,” Scan Journal l (3), 2004
Julia Watts Belser: “Returning to Flesh: A Jewish Reflection on Feminist Disability Theology,” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Volume 26, Number 2, Fall 2010, pp. 127-132
Unit 7 - “Becoming”: Transgender Love
Dana International: “Yeshnan Banot” (There Are Girls, 1994)
Ted Swedenburg: “Saida Sultan/Danna International: Transgender Pop and the Polysemiotics of Sex, Nation, and Ethnicity on the Israeli-Egyptian Border,” The Musical Quarterly 81 (1), Spring 1997, pp. 81-108.
- Melting Away (Namess Ba’Geshem), directed by Doron Eran (2012)
Yishay Garbasz: “In My Mother’s Footsteps,” “Becoming,” “Being Seen”
Joy Ladin: Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey between Genders (2012)
Unit8 - Love Isn't Supposed to Leave Bruises: Sexual Assault
Amalia Kahana Carmon: “Bridal Veil” (1968)
Jessica Benjamin: selection from The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, & the Problem of Domination (1988)
Hannah Naveh: “Bridal Veil,” Reading Hebrew Literature: Critical Discussions of Six Modern Text, Alan Mintz (ed.) (2003)
1