JWST 383 - Tel Aviv-Jaffa and Jerusalem in the Israeli Cultural Imagination

Semester Offered: Spring
.5 unit(s)

(Same as URBS 383) This course examines the importance of urban space in Israeli culture, focusing on two paradigmatic sites: Tel Aviv-Jaffa and Jerusalem. The course proceeds in chronological fashion, examining the depiction of each city and its history in literary texts and - time permitting – other cultural artifacts (film, fine arts). We read primary sources in light of recent critical theory on space and consider the following questions: How do ideas of sacred space explicit in Jerusalem’s historical authority complicate Tel Aviv’s own more modest claims as an urban center? How are notions of exile and homeland, always central to Jewish conceptions of space and identity, transformed as they are grounded in actual geographic sites? How does Jerusalem’s status as a contested site complicate the meaning of competing national, social and religious claims? Students will learn how to think critically about urban space and its cultural meaning. Critical theory on space and historical background will be presented through short lectures, with most of the class session conducted seminar style. Ms. Mann.

Selected primary sources: S.Y. Agnon, Yehuda Amichai, David Grossman, Dalia Rabikovitch, Avot Yeshurun, Etgar Keret, Ayman Sikseck.

Selected critical/historical sources: Henri De Certeau, Zali Gurevitch, Meron Benvenisti, Dali Manor, Alona Nitzan-Shiftan.

Second six-week course.

One 2-hour period.