Summer 2005

E s322 • Jerusalem in Israeli Literature and Cinema

Course Description

This course is aimed at undergraduate and graduate students of Hebrew, Middle Eastern Studies, and all students who are interested in studying Israeli society as expressed in literature and cinema.

Jerusalem is prominently figured in the stories, poems, essays, and films of Israeli writers and filmmakers. The course will address the multifaceted, ambivalent, and at times, schizophrenic depiction of the city, not only in the overall body of Israeli literature and cinema, but, often, within a single work. This figurative dissonance embedded in most literary and filmic works depicting Jerusalem may often be attributed to the desire to project onto this city that which it is not; Jerusalem as an actual locale clashes with the city as an imagined site.

The course will explore the following topics: Peace and War, Religion and Spirituality, In Search of the Lost Time, Symbolism and Iconography, The Jerusalem Syndrome, The Site of the Real and the Imagined, Home and Exile, Belonging and Alienation

Grading Policy

Midterm Paper (5 pages) 20%
Final Paper (7 pages) 30%
Book Review (2 pages) 10%
Film Review (2 pages) 10%
Class Presentation 15%
Attendance and Participation 15%

Texts

Poems of Jerusalem and Love Poems, Yehuda Amichai. Available at the UT Co-op.
Two course packets, Available at Speedway Copying (at the Dobie Mall).

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