Television Drama in Israel: Identities in Post-TV Culture

Israeli television, currently celebrating fifty years of broadcasting, has become one of the most important content sources on the international TV drama market, when serials such as Homeland, Hostages, Fauda, Zaguory Empire and In Treatment were bought by international networks, HBO included. Offering both a textual reading and discourse analysis of contemporary Israeli television dramas, Itay Harlap adopts a case study approach in order to address production, reception and technological developments in its accounts. His premise is that the meeting point between social trends within Israeli society (primarily the rise of opposition groups to the hegemony of the Zionist-Jewish-masculine-Ashkenazi ideologies) and major changes in the medium in Israel (which are comparable to international changes that have been titled "post-TV"), led to the creation of television dramas characterized by controversial themes and complex narratives, which present identities in ways never seen before on television or in other Israeli mediums. Itay Harlap teaches television studies and film theory at Sapir Academic College, Israel, and at the The Steve Tisch School of Film and Television, Tel Aviv University, Israel. His articles have appeared in Jewish Film & New Media, Misgarot Media [in Hebrew], Mikan [in Hebrew], Critical Studies in Television, and GLQ, A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. Harlap is among the founders and organizers of the "Fiktzia" annual conference on Israeli television studies. Reviews: “[Harlap] does an excellent job of exploring the historical and cultural contexts that have led to the popularity of these drama series, and the ways in which they have explored pertinent and often painful issues such as trauma (including cultural trauma) and victimisation, Israeliness, ageing and masculinity, and gay fatherhood ... The book offers an insightful analysis ... relevant for researchers and students beyond the Israeli context as well.” – European Journal of Communication “This is a stylishly written, readable and persuasive analysis of a selection of contemporary Israeli television that will be of considerable interest and value to students and researchers alike. One of the main strengths of the book is that it engages directly with programmes, via coherent and conceptually informed case studies that bring new material into the scholarly domain and combine close textual analysis with a discussion of Israeli society and culture. A second major strength of Dr Harlap's writing is that, although tightly focused on contemporary Israeli TV drama, he adopts critical, conceptual and theoretical frameworks that connect directly with the wider field of Television Studies: for example, 'post-TV' – indeed, 'post-Israel' -, cultural and psychological notions of trauma and the politics of representation. This book is an important contribution to the growing field of Israeli Television Studies, whilst several of the case studies – the chapter on representations of gay fatherhood, for example – pick up on representational and political issues that will resonate beyond Israel.” – Stephen Lacey, Emeritus Professor of Drama, Film and Television, University of South Wales, Wales, UK “Television Drama in Israel is a brilliant study of the collapse of the Zionist ideal of the “New Jew” as it is represented in five Israeli TV dramas. Through an insightful analysis of both themes and structures, the book shows how the Jewish masculine, Ashkenazi heterosexual hero is replaced by repressed identities of Arab-Jews, LGBT, or an effeminate protagonist. Arguing that this transformation reflects, as well as effects, Israeli society's new Post-Zionist era, the book utilizes an intricate study of personal and collective traumas to impressively expose new perceptions of victims and of perpetrators as they are represented in Post-TV dramatic articulations.” – Hannan Hever, Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Professor of Hebrew Language and Literature and Comparative Literature, Yale University, USA “Itay Harlap's book provides a fresh and detailed analysis on core themes in Israeli culture through what has until now been an under explored perspective- that of Israeli television productions. It is therefore an important and illuminating contribution to the fields of both Israel and Television Studies that researchers will find as a valuable text in their courses.” – Nurith Gertz, Professor Emerita of Film and Literature, The Open University of Israel, Israel