Why Harry Met Sally

Subversive Jewishness, Anglo-Christian Power, and the Rhetoric of Modern Love

Nonfiction, Entertainment, Film, History & Criticism, Performing Arts, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science
Cover of the book Why Harry Met Sally by Joshua Louis Moss, University of Texas Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Joshua Louis Moss ISBN: 9781477312858
Publisher: University of Texas Press Publication: July 18, 2017
Imprint: University of Texas Press Language: English
Author: Joshua Louis Moss
ISBN: 9781477312858
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Publication: July 18, 2017
Imprint: University of Texas Press
Language: English
From immigrant ghetto love stories such as The Cohens and the Kellys (1926), through romantic comedies including Meet the Parents (2000) and Knocked Up (2007), to television series such as Transparent (2014–), Jewish-Christian couplings have been a staple of popular culture for over a century. In these pairings, Joshua Louis Moss argues, the unruly screen Jew is the privileged representative of progressivism, secular modernism, and the cosmopolitan sensibilities of the mass-media age. But his/her unruliness is nearly always contained through romantic union with the Anglo-Christian partner. This Jewish-Christian meta-narrative has recurred time and again as one of the most powerful and enduring, although unrecognized, mass-culture fantasies.Using the innovative framework of coupling theory, Why Harry Met Sally surveys three major waves of Jewish-Christian couplings in popular American literature, theater, film, and television. Moss explores how first-wave European and American creators in the early twentieth century used such couplings as an extension of modernist sensibilities and the American "melting pot." He then looks at how New Hollywood of the late 1960s revived these couplings as a sexually provocative response to the political conservatism and representational absences of postwar America. Finally, Moss identifies the third wave as emerging in television sitcoms, Broadway musicals, and "gross-out" film comedies to grapple with the impact of American economic globalism since the 1990s. He demonstrates that, whether perceived as a threat or a triumph, Jewish-Christian couplings provide a visceral, easily graspable, template for understanding the rapid transformations of an increasingly globalized world.
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
From immigrant ghetto love stories such as The Cohens and the Kellys (1926), through romantic comedies including Meet the Parents (2000) and Knocked Up (2007), to television series such as Transparent (2014–), Jewish-Christian couplings have been a staple of popular culture for over a century. In these pairings, Joshua Louis Moss argues, the unruly screen Jew is the privileged representative of progressivism, secular modernism, and the cosmopolitan sensibilities of the mass-media age. But his/her unruliness is nearly always contained through romantic union with the Anglo-Christian partner. This Jewish-Christian meta-narrative has recurred time and again as one of the most powerful and enduring, although unrecognized, mass-culture fantasies.Using the innovative framework of coupling theory, Why Harry Met Sally surveys three major waves of Jewish-Christian couplings in popular American literature, theater, film, and television. Moss explores how first-wave European and American creators in the early twentieth century used such couplings as an extension of modernist sensibilities and the American "melting pot." He then looks at how New Hollywood of the late 1960s revived these couplings as a sexually provocative response to the political conservatism and representational absences of postwar America. Finally, Moss identifies the third wave as emerging in television sitcoms, Broadway musicals, and "gross-out" film comedies to grapple with the impact of American economic globalism since the 1990s. He demonstrates that, whether perceived as a threat or a triumph, Jewish-Christian couplings provide a visceral, easily graspable, template for understanding the rapid transformations of an increasingly globalized world.

More books from University of Texas Press

Cover of the book The Evolution of a State, or, Recollections of Old Texas Days by Joshua Louis Moss
Cover of the book Creole Economics by Joshua Louis Moss
Cover of the book Immigration and Nationalism by Joshua Louis Moss
Cover of the book A Love Letter to Texas Women by Joshua Louis Moss
Cover of the book The Empress Theodora by Joshua Louis Moss
Cover of the book The Structure of Leaves of Grass by Joshua Louis Moss
Cover of the book Texas Through Women's Eyes by Joshua Louis Moss
Cover of the book Foxboy by Joshua Louis Moss
Cover of the book Tell Me the Story of How I Conquered You by Joshua Louis Moss
Cover of the book The Euro-American Cinema by Joshua Louis Moss
Cover of the book Adventures with a Texas Naturalist by Joshua Louis Moss
Cover of the book Wild Orchids of Texas by Joshua Louis Moss
Cover of the book U.S. Foreign Policy and Peru by Joshua Louis Moss
Cover of the book Competitive Archaeology in Jordan by Joshua Louis Moss
Cover of the book Whose School Is It? by Joshua Louis Moss
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy