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" Fields of Zionist Dreams: "
Hellman, Jacob
Dharwadker, Aparna
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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1106310
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| Doc. No
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TLpq2384895947
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| Main Entry
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Dharwadker, Aparna
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Hellman, Jacob
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| Title & Author
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Fields of Zionist Dreams:\ Hellman, JacobDharwadker, Aparna
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| College
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The University of Wisconsin - Madison
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| Date
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2020
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| student score
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2020
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Page No
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262
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| Abstract
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This dissertation is a critical examination of the unique character of the soldier as written by Israeli playwrights and seen on the Israeli stage in twelve plays. In Chapter 1, I introduce the history of Zionism and of the Israeli Defense Forces and their role in the creation of the “cognitive militarism” that categorizes Israel as a nation-state. I also introduce the soldier both as a performer and as a performed character, and the significance that soldiering holds in Israeli society as well as in the theatre of its national commemorative narrative, or “theatrical nationhood.” In Chapter 2, I discuss three plays from the first decade of Israel’s existence, two of which – Hu Halach B’Sadot and Hanna Senesh – venerate the soldier as national martyr, and one, Hem Yagi’u Machar, which depicts some of the harsher realities of the soldiering experience. Chapter 3 looks at the soldier character in plays from the 1960s to the 1980s, and how the soldier’s reputation transforms through direct criticism in the forms of Chekhovian realism on the mainstage (Laila BeMai), scathing satire on the small stage (At Ve’Ani Ve’HaMilchama HaBa’Ah, Malkat Ha’Ambatya, and Retzach), and a play whose content was banned, resulting in it not even seeing any stage (Ephraim Chozer L’Tzava). Chapter 4 discusses plays from the 1990s to the present, and how the soldier and the soldiering experience is continually critically reexamined through lenses of documentary drama (Gorodish), postmodern theatre (HaMadrich L’Chaim HaTovim) and fringe theatre (Sefer HaPanim Sheli and Pffffff). Chapter 5 brings the character of the Israeli soldier full circle, in its discussion of revivals of four plays from earlier chapters. In my conclusion, I suggest that we can see the evolution and change of national character through a national character. Through depictions of the IDF soldier on the Israeli stage throughout history, the character becomes a palimpsest, a representative of “the people’s army” by and for the people of Israel.
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Judaic studies
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Theater
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Theater history
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