Language:
Hebrew
Year of publication:
2015
Titel der Quelle:
תיאוריה וביקורת; במה ישראלית
Angaben zur Quelle:
44 (2015) 203-222
Keywords:
National characteristics, Israeli
;
Reality television programs
;
Israel Relations
Abstract:
In its sixth season, the Israeli TV reality show A Star Is Born set out for India to search for musical talent among Israeli backpackers. The special auditions episode is a vehicle for examining how the Indian space is imagined in Israeli popular culture. Through an analysis of the postcolonial hybrid encounter I examine the ways in which India is constructed as an ambivalent space characterized by elements of traditional Orientalist discourse, albeit a discourse that is "filtered" through the prism of self-awareness, irony and reflexivity that seems to serve as an antidote to that selfsame discourse. Spatially, India is constructed as the ultimate other: primitive, undeveloped and polluted. At the same time, "positive" Orientalist representations, such as simplicity and "authenticity," foster a nostalgic temporal yearning for an "undamaged" hegemonic Zionism, thus creating a model of sentimental commercial nationalism. Through the dialectic of disgust and enlightenment, revulsion and attraction, a hybrid model of nostalgic Zionism is constructed, constantly maneuvering between spatial and temporal dimensions in order to constitute an Israeli identity through its relation to India and the practices of neoliberal tourism.
URL:
אתר את הפרסום בקטלוג המאוחד של ספריות ישראל
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