Local Mosaic: Visual and Material Cultures in Israel

The course will examine the diverse cultural appearances that characterize non-hegemonic ethnic and racial groups in Israeli society. By examining artifacts from a variety of mediums (objects, architecture, toys, jewelry, and fashion), we will analyze the ways in which the material culture of the “Other” contests, undermines and is

reconciled with the Western material cultural representations that characterize canonical culture in Israel. Presenting the “Other" voice will coincide with clarifying the concepts of ethnicity, race, nationality, and religion and surveying the ways in which they are present in Western material culture, in light of the different orientalist conventions that they contest and seek to challenge. This inquiry seeks to raise questions concerning methods of representation, narratives, style, and aesthetics, while

examining where the Israeli society is located on the axis between a multiplicity of cultures and multiculturalism. We will become acquainted with the different material cultural expressions by encountering cultural entrepreneurs that draw out voices that are underrepresented in the Israeli culture, as well as by looking at recent critical literature that engages with these issues.