ABSTRACT

The Routledge Handbook to Contemporary Jewish Cultures explores the diversity of Jewish cultures and ways of investigating them, presenting the different methodologies, arguments and challenges within the discipline. Divided into themed sections, this book considers in turn:

  • How the individual terms "Jewish" and "culture" are defined, looking at perspectives from Anthropology, Music, Literary Studies, Sociology, Religious Studies, History, Art History, and Film, Television, and New Media Studies.
  • How Jewish cultures are theorized, looking at key themes regarding power, textuality, religion/secularity, memory, bodies, space and place, and networks.
  • Case studies in contemporary Jewish cultures.

With essays by leading scholars in Jewish culture, this book offers a clear overview of the field and offers exciting new directions for the future.

chapter 1|13 pages

Introduction

part I|106 pages

Defining terms

chapter 1|18 pages

Anthropology

chapter 2|12 pages

Music

Disciplinary perspectives

chapter 3|13 pages

Literary Studies

chapter 4|11 pages

Sociology

chapter 5|12 pages

Religious Studies

chapter 6|12 pages

History

chapter 7|13 pages

Art History

part II|89 pages

Theorizing contemporary Jewish cultures

chapter 9|16 pages

Power

chapter 10|12 pages

Textuality

chapter 11|11 pages

Religion/Secularity

chapter 12|10 pages

Memory

chapter 13|11 pages

Bodies

chapter 14|12 pages

Space and Place

chapter 15|15 pages

Networks

part III|109 pages

Case studies in contemporary Jewish cultures

chapter 17|12 pages

Television Blackface

Jews, race, and comedy in the UK and Australia

chapter 18|10 pages

Mizrahi/Arab/Israeli/Queer

The cultural politics of Dana International

chapter 20|13 pages

The Idea of Yiddish

Re-globalizing North American Jewish culture

chapter 22|11 pages

Pop, Piety and Modernity

The changing spaces of Orthodox culture

chapter 24|12 pages

Life Drawing

Autobiography, comics, Jewish women

chapter 25|20 pages

Playing with History

Jewish subjectivity in contemporary lens-based art

chapter 26|13 pages

Scoreboard

Sports and American Jewish identities 1

chapter 27|12 pages

Theorizing “Jewish Genetics”

DNA, culture and historical narrative