From the evacuees to grandma's house: class, sexuality and Jewish identity on British television 1975-2012
- Submitting institution
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The University of Reading
: A - Art
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory : A - Art
- Output identifier
- 53718
- Type
- C - Chapter in book
- DOI
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- Book title
- Hidden in Plain Sight: Jews and Jewishness in British Film, Television and Popular Culture
- Publisher
- Northwestern University Press
- ISBN
- 9780810132825
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- -
- Year of publication
- 2016
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This chapter offers an analysis of masculinity and class in British Jewry through the underrepresented working-class Jewry as represented in three key UK TV programmes broadcast from the 1970s to 2000s. It builds on my acknowledged research expertise in film, valences of subjectivity and visual portrayals of Jewish identities within contemporary visual culture. Through the case studies I situate the shifts in representation of Jewish masculinity since the second world war and interrogate what constitutes community; Jewish double consciousness; the elision of class and particularly challenging the pervasive representation of Jewishness as now middle-class. In sum I ask, what do these self-portrayals say about the transformations of the Jewish community in the United Kingdom in the last few generations and the condition of being a Jew in Britain today.
The case studies are The Evacuees (1975) and The Barmitzvah Boy (1976) by Jack Rosenthal and the more recent Grandma’s House (2010-1012) by Simon Amstell. This work uniquely brings together Sue Vice’s work on Jack Rosenthal and Geoffrey Alderman’s history of British Jewry with Ben Gidley and Keith Kahn-Harris’ socio-political analysis of the challenges and experiences of current British Jewry to develop my unique focus and argument that looks more specifically at TV representations of British Jewish masculinity. Nathan Abrams has worked on Jewish Masculinity in Film and TV but has not focused on these playwrights, nor developed a theoretical argument. This chapter developed out of a network group: “Hidden: British Jews in Film and TV” convened by Abrams at Bangor University, including colleagues from Southampton University, Birmingham University, Sheffield University (25 May 2011), Winchester University, Leeds University, Queen Mary (Sept. 3, 2013).
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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