In search of American Jewish cultureIn drama and in musical comedy, in popular song and in symphonic music, in movies and in literature, Jews have contributed to American culture in the 20th century to a degree out of all proportion to their numbers. But does this vast creative output coalesce into something identifiable as an American Jewish culture? Stephen J. Whitfield answers this question with a resounding "yes!" Whitfield focuses on areas where the specifically Jewish contribution has been little explored. He surveys such fields as popular music, musical theater, and drama, focusing on key figures from Jerome Kern and the Gershwins to Stephen Sondheim and Jerome Robbins; Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland to Irving Berlin and Bob Dylan; Arthur Miller and Lillian Hellman to David Mamet and Wendy Wasserstein. At the same time, Whitfield tackles the complex issue of race and American Jewish culture, tracing the extensive interpenetrations of Jewish and African American music. He also offers a stunning examination of Jewish American representations of the Holocaust, focusing on stage and film adaptations of Anne Frank's Diary and on Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List. In a poignant, final chapter, Whitfield ponders the future of American Jewish culture after a century of assimilationist pressure and mainstream success. The distinctive culture that he has traced through the 20th century, Whitfield concludes, may finally become submerged and lost. Only a renewed emphasis on Judaism itself, he believes, offers the hope for American Jews to maintain the dual cultural identities that they have so long succeeded in nurturing. |
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IN SEARCH OF AMERICAN JEWISH CULTURE
User Review - Jane Doe - KirkusWhitfield (American Studies/Brandeis; A Death in the Delta: The Life of Emmett Till, 1988) examines the complex interplay between Jewish newcomers to the US and the culture they helped shape ... Read full review
In search of American Jewish culture
User Review - Not Available - Book VerdictThe title begs the question: what is American Jewish culture, anyway? Whitfield (American studies, Brandeis Univ.; American Space, Jewish Time) attempts to answer by arguing that it is binary, an ... Read full review
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Bibliographic information
| Title | In search of American Jewish culture Brandeis series in American Jewish history, culture, and life |
| Author | Stephen J. Whitfield |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Brandeis University Press, 1999 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | Sep 17, 2008 |
| Length | 307 pages |
| Subjects | › › American literature American literature/ Jewish authors/ History and criticism History / Jewish History / United States / General Jewish entertainers Jews Jews in popular culture Jews/ United States/ Intellectual life Judaism and literature Judaism and literature/ United States Popular culture Religion / Judaism / General Social Science / Ethnic Studies / General Social Science / Jewish Studies Social Science / Minority Studies Social Science / Popular Culture United States |
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