Description
Book SynopsisHere, Vincent Brook examines the trend for American sitcoms featuring explicitly, Jewish lead characters from the period 1989 through 2002. He questions why this trend appeared at this particular historical moment and the significance of this phenomenon for Jews and non-Jews alike?
Trade Review"By offering a savvy and sophisticated history of how television has showcased Jewish characters, Vincent Brook manages to illuminate both the permutations of Jewish status in pop culture and the openness of an inescapable medium to ethnic persistence. As a result,
Something Ain't Kosher Here is a compulsively readable book." -- Stephen Whitfield * Dept. of American Studies, Brandeis University *
"This is rigorous, passionate, readable television criticism." -- David Marc * author of Comic Visions: Television Comedy and American Culture *
This is rigorous, passionate, readable television criticism. -- David Marc * author of Comic Visions: Television Comedy and American Culture *
By offering a savvy and sophisticated history of how television has showcased Jewish characters, Vincent Brook manages to illuminate both the permutations of Jewish status in pop culture and the openness of an inescapable medium to ethnic persistence. As a result, Something AinÆt Kosher Here is a compulsively readable book. -- Stephen Whitfield * Department of American Studies, Brandeis University *
Table of Contents1. Introduction
2. The Americanization of Molly
3. The Vanishing American Jew? Ethno-Racial Projects in the Post-Goldbergs Era
4. The More Things Change ... : The First Phase of the Jewish Sitcom Trend
5. Trans-formations of Ethnic Space from The Goldbergs to Seinfeld
6. Under the Sign of Seinfeld: The Second Phase of the Jewish Sitcom Trend
7. Un-"Dresch"-ing the Jewish Princess
8. Post-Jewishness? The Third Phase of the Jewish Sitcom Trend
9. Conclusion?
