Woody on Rye: Jewishness in the Films and Plays of Woody Allen [Paperback]

Although Woody Allens films have received extensive attention from scholars and critics, no book has focused exclusively on Jewishness in his work, particularly that of the late 1990s and beyond. In this anthology, a distinguished group of contributorswhose work is richly contextualized in the fields of literature, philosophy, film, theater, and comedyexamine the schlemiel, Allen and women, the Jewish take on the morality of murder, Allens take on Hebrew scripture and Greek tragedy, his stage work, his cinematic treatment of food and dining, and what happens to Jew York when Woody takes his films out of New York City. Considered together, these essays delineate the intellectual, artistic, and moral development of one of cinemas most durable and controversial directors.

VINCENT BROOK teaches at USC, UCLA, Cal State LA, and Pierce College. His most recent book is Land of Smoke and Mirrors: A Cultural History of Los Angeles. MARAT GRINBERG is associate professor of Russian and humanities at Reed College. He is the author of I am to be read not from left to right, but in Jewish: from right to left: The Poetics of Boris Slutsky.

Introduction  Vincent Brook and Marat Grinberg OVERVIEW The Gospel According to Woody: From Annie Hall through To Rome with Love  Vincent Brook COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS The Birth of a Hebrew Tragedy: Cassandras Dream as a Morality Play in the Context of Crimes and Misdemeanors and Match Point  Marat Grinberg A Jew Leaves New York: Woody Allens Gloomy British Angst  Curtis Maloley SCHLEMIEL THEORY Woody Allens Schlemiel: From Humble Beginnings to Abrupt End  Menachem Feuer Woody the Gentile: Christian-Jewish Interplay in Allens Films from Whats New Pussycat? to Midnight in Paris  Joshua Louis Moss Now You See Him, Now You Dont: Woody Allens Vanishing Act in Scoop  Peter J. Bailey WOMENS ISSUES Woodys Women: Jewish Domesticity and the Unredeemed Ghost of Hanukkah to Come  GilS6