Journal Article

Subjectivity, Institutions and Language in Contemporary Israeli Film

Ofengenden, Ari

2019

Overview

In his article \"Subjectivity, Institutions and Language in Contemporary Israeli Film\" Ari Ofengenden analyzes the transnational characteristics of contemporary Israeli films (from 2000 until today). He claims that a new regime of globally networked production and distribution of Israeli film has articulated a specific kind of subjectivity presented in these films. In this article, he will concentrate on two characteristics of this subjectivity: the relations of protagonist with social institutions and use of language. Relations with social institutions starts with the highly prevalent representations of a sensitive and individualist protagonist who suffers under collective and coercive institutions like the army, religious courts, or the kibbutz. The fact that this individual does not really belong to his or her place is signaled by their multilingual use of language. Using western-European languages simultaneously present a certain kind of semi-European subjectivity. Global production, however, has meant the decline of subjectivities that would like to transform rather than strengthen existing institutions, as well as demise of the playful, expanding Hebrew of the 1970's.

• Publisher: Purdue University Press
• Subject: Movie distributors