Description
Book SynopsisProjecting the Nation: History and Ideology on the Israeli Screen is a wide-ranging history of over seven decades of Israeli cinema. The only book in English to offer this type of historical scope was Ella Shohat’s
Israeli Cinema: East West and the Politics of Representation from 1989. Since 1989, however, Israeli cinema and Israeli society have undergone some crucial transformations and, moreover, Shohat’s book offered a single framework through which to judge Israeli cinema: a critique of orientalism.
Projecting the Nation contends that Israeli cinema offers much richer historical and ideological perspectives that expose the complexity of the Israeli project. By analyzing Israeli films which address such issues as the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Ashkenazi-Mizrahi divide, the kibbutz and urban life, the rise of religion in Israeli public life and more, the book explores the way cinema has represented and also shaped our understanding of the history of modern Israel as it evolved from a collectivist society to a society where individualism and adherence to local identities is the dominant ideology.
Trade Review“In
Projecting the Nation, Eran Kaplan ingeniously analyzes the interrelation of aesthetic, economic, and social forces that have influenced Israeli filmmaking since the state’s inception. Kaplan’s interpretations of genres and individual films are smart, sophisticated, and engaging.”— Derek Penslar, Author of Israel in History
Table of ContentsContents
Introduction
1 Pioneers, Fighters and Immigrants
2 Looking Inward
3 Present Absentees
4 The Post-Zionist Condition
5 The Post-Political Turn in Israeli Cinema
6 Eros on the Israeli Screen
7 In the Image of the Divine
Epilogue Big Screens, Small Screens
Acknowledgments
