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Distributed for Brandeis University Press

Woody on Rye

Jewishness in the Films and Plays of Woody Allen

Distributed for Brandeis University Press

Woody on Rye

Jewishness in the Films and Plays of Woody Allen

Although Woody Allen’s films have received extensive attention from scholars and critics, no book has focused exclusively on Jewishness in his work, particularly that of the late 1990s and beyond. In this anthology, a distinguished group of contributors—whose work is richly contextualized in the fields of literature, philosophy, film, theater, and comedy—examine the schlemiel, Allen and women, the Jewish take on the “morality of murder,” Allen’s take on Hebrew scripture and Greek tragedy, his stage work, his cinematic treatment of food and dining, and what happens to “Jew York” when Woody takes his films out of New York City. Considered together, these essays delineate the intellectual, artistic, and moral development of one of cinema’s most durable and controversial directors.

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Table of Contents

Introduction – Vincent Brook and Marat Grinberg • OVERVIEW • The Gospel According to Woody: From Annie Hall through To Rome with Love – Vincent Brook • COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS • The Birth of a Hebrew Tragedy: Cassandra’s Dream as a Morality Play in the Context of Crimes and Misdemeanors and Match Point – Marat Grinberg • A Jew Leaves New York: Woody Allen’s Gloomy British Angst – Curtis Maloley • SCHLEMIEL THEORY • Woody Allen’s Schlemiel: From Humble Beginnings to Abrupt End – Menachem Feuer • “Woody the Gentile”: Christian-Jewish Interplay in Allen’s Films from What’s New Pussycat? to Midnight in Paris – Joshua Louis Moss • “Now You See Him, Now You Don’t”: Woody Allen’s Vanishing Act in Scoop – Peter J. Bailey • WOMEN’S ISSUES • Woody’s Women: Jewish Domesticity and the Unredeemed Ghost of Hanukkah to Come – Giovanna P. Del Negro • Reconstructing Woody: Representations of Religious Jewish Women in Deconstructing Harry – Shaina Hammerman • “Toot, Toot, Tootsie! (Goodbye)”: Disposable Women in the Films of Woody Allen – Elliot Shapiro • CULTURAL STUDIES • Digesting Woody: Food and Foodways in the Movies of Woody Allen – Nathan Abrams • Schlemiel on Broadway: Woody Allen’s Jewish Identity in His Stage Plays from Don’t Drink the Water to Honeymoon Motel – James Fisher • Woody Allen: Filmography • Woody Allen: Play List • Index

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