Coming Out Jewish: On the Impossibility of Jewish Assimilation
"This book makes a crucial bridge between the newly emerging Jewish Studies and Cultural Studies that will be essential reading for critics in both fields as well as those concerned with issues of identity and multiculturalism." --Nick Mirzoeff, author of An Introduction to Visual Culture What does it mean to be Jewish in today's world? In his new book, Jon Stratton helps readers understand the nature of being Jewish as a racial and ethnic identity, addressing issues of migration,...
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"This book makes a crucial bridge between the newly emerging Jewish Studies and Cultural Studies that will be essential reading for critics in both fields as well as those concerned with issues of identity and multiculturalism." --Nick Mirzoeff, author of An Introduction to Visual Culture What does it mean to be Jewish in today's world? In his new book, Jon Stratton helps readers understand the nature of being Jewish as a racial and ethnic identity, addressing issues of migration, assimilation, diaspora and multiculturalism. He argues that Jewishness is being misunderstood in an increasingly non-spiritual and non-essentialist way. Weaving autobiographical material through a number of chapters, Stratton introduces his own experience of being brought up in a highly assimilatory household. He explores attitudes to Jewishness as expressed in cultural policy and in popular culture, considering the ambivalent place of Jews in Europe, the United States and Australia. Stratton discusses the place of Jewish thought within cultural studies, referring to theories of diaspora and identity developed by authors such as Ien Ang and Stuart Hall, and also writers for Jewish Studies such as Daniel Boyarin and Sander Gilman. Through his discussions of Jewish identity in various countries, he drives home the point of being an Othered people in a modern era. Chapters of particular interest and controversy include discussions on the rise of anti-Semitism in Germany and the development of the German nation state, and the Jewish origins of cultural pluralism in the United States. Booknews The CiP data shows the subtitle as The Impossibility of Jewish Assimilation. Stratton (cultural studies, Curtin U. of Technology, Perth, Australia) explores the nature of Jewishness as a racial and ethnic identity, and addresses issues of migration, assimilation, diaspora, and multiculturalism through the experience of being Jewish. He argues that Jewishness is being understood in an increasingly secular and non-essentialist way. His own experience of growing up Jewish in a highly assimilatory household is interwoven through his study. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
AcknowledgementsviiIntroduction1Part 1How not to assimilate331Speaking as a Jew in British cultural studies352European Jews, assimilation and the uncanny533Ghetto thinking and everyday life84Part 2(Dis)placement in the state1154Jews, representation and the modern state1175Historicising the idea of diaspora1376Migrating to utopia164Part 3Not quite white1937Jews, race and the White Australia policy1958Jews and multiculturalism in Australia2209Making social space for Jews in America25110Seinfeld is a Jewish sitcom, isn't it?282Bibliography315Index333
\ BooknewsThe CiP data shows the subtitle as The Impossibility of Jewish Assimilation. Stratton (cultural studies, Curtin U. of Technology, Perth, Australia) explores the nature of Jewishness as a racial and ethnic identity, and addresses issues of migration, assimilation, diaspora, and multiculturalism through the experience of being Jewish. He argues that Jewishness is being understood in an increasingly secular and non-essentialist way. His own experience of growing up Jewish in a highly assimilatory household is interwoven through his study. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)\ \
