Reel Kabbalah: Jewish Mysticism and Neo-Hasidism in Contemporary Cinema

By: Brian Ogren

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Synopsis: Reel Kabbalah: Jewish Mysticism and Neo-Hasidism in Contemporary Cinema studies the ways in which fictional film in the first decade of the twenty-first century represents the esoteric Jewish speculative traditions known as Kabbalah and Hasidism. It examines the textual and conceptual traditions behind five important cinematic representations -- Pi (1998), Ushpizin (2004), Bee Season (2005), The Secrets (2007), and A Serious Man (2009) -- and it considers how film both stands in continuity with those traditions and modifies them in the New Age vein of what is known as neo-Kabbalah and neo-Hasidism. Brian Ogren transforms our understanding of reception history by focusing on how cinema has altered perceptions of Jewish mysticism. In showing how the Jewish speculative traditions of Kabbalah and Hasidism have been able to affect mass-consumed cinematic portrayals of ultimate Truth, this book sheds light on the New Age, pop-cultural dialectic of the particular within the universal and of the universal within the particular.

Book Quality:: Publisher Quality
Book Size:: 188 Pages
ISBN-13:: 9781978840249
Related ISBNs:: 9781978840270, 9781978840256
Publisher:: Rutgers University Press
Date of Addition:: 09/13/24
Copyrighted By:: Brian Ogren
Adult content:: No
Language:: English
Has Image Descriptions:: No
Categories:: History, Entertainment, Nonfiction, Art and Architecture, Religion and Spirituality, Social Studies
Grade Levels:: College Freshman
Reading Age:: 18 and up
Submitted By:: Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:: This is a copyrighted book.