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Palestine and Jewish History Criticism at the Borders of Ethnography Jonathan Boyarin |
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An engaged consideration of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, written by an American Jew. This provocative and personal series of meditations on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict argues that it represents a struggle not as much about land and history as about space, time, and memory. Juxtaposing entries from Jonathan Boyarin's field diary with critical and theoretical articulations, Palestine and Jewish History shows not only the unfinished nature of anthropological endeavor, but also the author's personal stake in the ethical predicament of being a Jew at this point in history. Boyarin comes to Israel as a specialist in modern Jewish studies, an individual who has kin, friends, and colleagues there, a scholar with a long history of peace activism. He interweaves fascinating descriptions of ordinary life-parties, walks, classes, visits to homes-with a selection of his related writings on cultural studies and anthropology. In the process, we learn a good deal about the Middle East and its debates and connections to other places. Ultimately, Palestine and Jewish History enacts rather than reports on Boyarin's process of error, pain, impatience, uncertainty, self-criticism, intellectual struggle, and dawning awareness, challenging and engaging us in the process of discovery. Jonathan Boyarin is the author of Storm from Paradise (1993), co-editor, with Daniel Boyarin, of Jews and Other Differences (1996), and coauthor, with Daniel Boyarin, of Powers of Diaspora (2002). 272 pages | 5 7/8 x 9 | 1996 |
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