Movies and Midrash : popular film and Jewish religious conversation / Wendy Zierler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zierler, Wendy, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Statistical hypothesis testing.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (185 pages)

Place of Publication:

London, [England] ; New York : Routledge, 2017.

Summary:

Finalist for the 2017 National Jewish Book Award in Modern Jewish Thought and Experience presented by the Jewish Book CouncilMovies and Midrash uses cinema as a springboard to discuss central Jewish texts and matters of belief. A number of books have drawn on films to explicate Christian theology and belief, but Wendy I. Zierler is the first to do so from a Jewish perspective, exploring what Jewish tradition, text, and theology have to say about the lessons and themes arising from influential and compelling films. The book uses the method of "inverted midrash": while classical rabbinical midrash begins with exegesis of a verse and then introduces a mashal (parable) as a means of further explication, Zierler turns that process around, beginning with the culturally familiar cinematic parable and then analyzing related Jewish texts. Each chapter connects a secular film to a different central theme in classical Jewish sources or modern Jewish thought. Films covered include The Truman Show (truth), Memento (memory), Crimes and Misdemeanors (sin), Magnolia (confession and redemption), The Descendants (birthright), Forrest Gump (cleverness and simplicity), and The Hunger Games (creation of humanity in God's image), among others.

Contents:

Chapter 1. The Truman show: truth

Chapter 2. Magnolia: confession and redemption

Chapter 3. The descendants: birthright

Chapter 4. Memento: memory

Chapter 5. Crimes and misdemeanors: sin

Chapter 6. Forrest gump: cleverness and simplicity

Chapter 7. The King's speech: speaking God's word

Chapter 8. Stranger than fiction: God as author

Chapter 9. A serious man: parables of Jewishness

Chapter 10. Exam: tests, trials, and attachments

Chapter 11. The hunger games: in God's image

Conclusion: Moonrise Kingdom: and the youth shall see visions.

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed September 16, 2017).

ISBN:

9781438466163

1438466161