A Culture of Tough Jews: Rhetorical Regeneration and the Politics of Identity

by David Moscowitz

Overview

The author reframes the tough Jew as an enduring act of rhetorical regeneration by reifying a related figure, the vital Jew. For audiences of rhetoric and cultural studies, the book offers critical and theoretical study of rhetorical regeneration, including original constructs of postmodern blackface and transformative performativity, as a resource for contemporary rhetorical invention.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781433126291
Publisher:	Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers
Publication date:	10/30/2014
Series:	Critical Intercultural Communication Studies , #15
Pages:	183
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

David Moscowitz (PhD, Indiana University) is Assistant Professor of Communication, Associate Director of Women’s and Gender Studies, and a faculty affiliate in film studies, Jewish studies, and African American studies at the College of Charleston.

Table of Contents

Contents: The Clout of the Defier: The Vital Jew in Shadow – Gangsters, Assimilation, and Performative Paradox – The Vital Gangsta and Postmodern Blackface – Heroism and Transformative Performativity – Regen(d)erating Exile: Deterritorializing the Zionist Hero – Conclusion: Vital Identity + Politics.

Editorial Reviews

«Writing at the intersections of identity and politics, rhetoric and culture, gender and ethnicity, David Moscowitz offers a compelling account of Jewish public culture and the tropes of the tough Jew and the vital Jew. Astutely attentive to contemporary global politics, the book theorizes rhetorical regeneration in ways that challenge public and scholarly understandings of intercultural dialogue and rhetorical action.» (Lisa A. Flores, University of Colorado)
«David Moscowitz brings to bear his considerable skills as a rhetorical critic of popular culture to bring the vital Jew out of the shadows. He makes a profound and insightful case for Diasporic Jewishness, that its vital Jew is as much a model for the Israeli as the American Jew. Listening to Moscowitz’s gentle and firm voice, the figure of the tough Jew is led to recognize his toughness as a response to his fear, his forceful defiance of a threatening world as the corollary of his attachment to victimhood, and his unquestioning allegiance to his tribe as the denial of rich, plural, self-questioning Jewish traditions. ‘A Culture of Tough Jews’ is compelling reading for rhetorical and cultural critics interested in ethnicity, masculinity, and identity in contemporary American life, and for all those concerned with contemporary Jewish life and identity.» (Jon Simons, Indiana University)

From the Publisher