10919 Israeli Theater: Change and Conflicts 1
Credits: 6 advanced credits in Theater or in Hebrew Literature
Prerequisites: 36 credits, including one of the following: Experiencing Theater: Introduction to Drama and the Theater, Theater and Society, From ‘National Home’ to a ‘State in the Making’: The Jewish Community in Palestine between the World Wars, Israel: The First Decade, Trends in Israeli Society, Mass Media in Israel. Students must also fulfill all English requirements and take bibliographic instruction in the Library.
Recommended: Modern Literary and Cultural Theory: An Introduction.
Authors: Dan Urian, Zmira H. Heizner, Naftali Shem-Tov. The materials include a reader and an anthology of selected plays.
The repertoire of Israeli theater (including mainstream and ‘fringe’ theater, Hebrew- and Arabic-speaking theater, etc.) reflects processes of change and conflicts that have taken place in Israeli culture since the Yishuv period and up to the 21st century. The repertoire reflects changes in the arts and the media as they represent the various groups that comprise Israeli society. The course acquaints students with texts and parts of plays in which playwrights and their audiences deal with the “other,” especially with Mizrachim (Jews of North African or Asian origin), with Israeli-Arabs, and with religious sectors.
Through the repertoire of plays and theater it illustrates these three major rifts in Israeli society and the changes that have taken place in the relations between the groups in the last hundred years.
Topics: Social aspects of theatrical texts, Mizrachim in Israeli theater, Israeli-Arabs in Israeli theater, Secular and religious Jews in Israeli theater.
1Students may write a seminar paper in this course, although it is not required.
There is some overlap in the content of this and other courses. For details, see Overlapping Courses.