Posted by 
Link to Conference Information
From the English at Reading Blog “A unique workshop entitled ‘Writing Jews in Contemporary Britain’. Hosted by the Pears Institute at Birkbeck College, University of London, the workshop comprised three panels (two on literature, one on film and television) that covered subjects ranging from the importance of Hendon in contemporary British-Jewish fiction, to the Jewishness of Dr Who (who knew?!).”
Podcasts of the workshop are available:
Dr. Nadia Valman – Anglo-Jewish Literature and the Poetics of Place
Dr. Ruth Gilbert – Genes, Shmenes’: Jew-ish Identities in Contemporary British Jewish Writing
Dr. James Jordan – Either/Neither or a Bit of Both: The Wandering View of British Television’s Image of the Jew
Dr. Nathan Adams – Lolita’s Hidden Heart of Jewishness
Dr. David Brauner – Fetishizing the Holocaust:Transatlantic Connections and Satirical Comedy in Howard Jacobson’s Kalooki Nights
Dr. Bryan Cheyette – British-Jewish Writing and the Challenge of Metaphorical Thinking
Text from pears Institute website:
The workshop’s emphasis is on new and innovative work being undertaken in the field and is intended to provide a forum for presenting and analysing the most recent critical and theoretical approaches to British-Jewish fiction, film, television drama and documentary.
Through the workshop we hope to explore, among other topics, the representation of ‘hyphenated’ British and Jewish identities; the recent history and current state of British-Jewish literary and visual culture; and the relation of that culture to the mainstream in Britain. The seminar will also consider British-Jewish culture in the light of postcolonial thinking and in comparison to the development of Jewish culture in the USA.
Programme
Introduction
David Feldman, Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism, Birkbeck, University of London
Session 1: Post-War British-Jewish Fiction
- Nadia Valman – Anglo-Jewish Literature and the Poetics of Place
- Ruth Gilbert – ‘Genes, Shmenes’: Jew-ish Identities in Contemporary British Jewish Writing
Session 2: British-Jewish Film and Television
- Nathan Abrams – Lolita’s Hidden Heart of Jewishness
- James Jordan – Either/Neither or a Bit of Both: The Wandering View of British Television’s Image of the Jew
Session 3: British-Jewish Writing in Relation to Anglophone and World Jewish Literary Production
- David Brauner – Fetishizing the Holocaust:Transatlantic Connections and Satirical Comedy in Howard Jacobson’s Kalooki Nights
- Bryan Cheyette – British-Jewish Writing and the Challenge of Metaphorical Thinking
Closing Remarks
Axel Stähler, University of Kent and Sue Vice, University of Sheffield
Seminar co-convenors
David Feldman, Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism
Axel Stähler, University of Kent
Sue Vice, University of Sheffield
