Israeli Film and Literature

This course examines literary and cinematic portrayals of childhood images and memories. While Israeli works constitute more then half of the course's material, American & European film and fiction play comparative roles. The works are placed against a backdrop of national or historical conflicts, yet the foci of many stories is individual trauma (such as loss or abuse) or longing for an idealized time. We look at how authors and directors struggle with their desire to retrieve fragments of past events and penetrate a child's psyche. We study how they use symbols, metaphors, color, light, close-ups and flashbacks to reconstruct memory.