Wednesday, May 17, 2006
In-Between, day 2
Still thinking of him all the time, although that's not necessarily a bad thing. Although I haven't seen him.
Yesterday was an incredibly interesting day for my research! I read through a few issues of this French-Jewish journal from 1957 and 1958. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I was especially struck by how the idea of empire tempered their comments on geo-politics. (Until that period, empire was the only modern geo-political arrangement that people knew of.) There was a lot of confusion on where they stood on the Algerian War. It was hard to take sides for many French people and many Algerian people because of the close ties of the two countries. But especially the Jews felt maligned from both directions-- they were not liked (actually hated) by the majority of the European settler population in Algeria. But with the newly formed state of Israel and a rising tide of what they referred to as "panarabaism", the Arab community in Algeria didn't care for the Jewish population there either. For the French who commented on the situation, the solution for Algerian Jews was to either go to France or go to Israel.
At the same time, the period was a time for the Jews to come to terms with a newly shaped identity. (This was also true for many sub-groups of French society, such as women, Arabs immigrants, homosexuals, etc.... what i call "pre-identity politics"). So there're a lot of articles trying to define the "authentic" Jew, or searching for the identity of the "Jewish man." (I love that sort of thing.)
I just found out that my sister and her boyfriend are staying in my studio apartment for 3 nights. I hope that they can keep it clean enough in here and I don't get too annoyed with them. That means the entire week next week will be spent dealing with guests. First my parents, then my sister... Good, and bad, at the same time! There will be consistently 3 people sharing the space that's really only 550 sq feet.
Oh well.
Love,
hammer
Yesterday was an incredibly interesting day for my research! I read through a few issues of this French-Jewish journal from 1957 and 1958. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I was especially struck by how the idea of empire tempered their comments on geo-politics. (Until that period, empire was the only modern geo-political arrangement that people knew of.) There was a lot of confusion on where they stood on the Algerian War. It was hard to take sides for many French people and many Algerian people because of the close ties of the two countries. But especially the Jews felt maligned from both directions-- they were not liked (actually hated) by the majority of the European settler population in Algeria. But with the newly formed state of Israel and a rising tide of what they referred to as "panarabaism", the Arab community in Algeria didn't care for the Jewish population there either. For the French who commented on the situation, the solution for Algerian Jews was to either go to France or go to Israel.
At the same time, the period was a time for the Jews to come to terms with a newly shaped identity. (This was also true for many sub-groups of French society, such as women, Arabs immigrants, homosexuals, etc.... what i call "pre-identity politics"). So there're a lot of articles trying to define the "authentic" Jew, or searching for the identity of the "Jewish man." (I love that sort of thing.)
I just found out that my sister and her boyfriend are staying in my studio apartment for 3 nights. I hope that they can keep it clean enough in here and I don't get too annoyed with them. That means the entire week next week will be spent dealing with guests. First my parents, then my sister... Good, and bad, at the same time! There will be consistently 3 people sharing the space that's really only 550 sq feet.
Oh well.
Love,
hammer
# posted by Jessica @ 17.5.06 
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Eek! That's a lot of guests.
As I was reading the piece of your post on pre-identity politics, I had the strongest sense of deja vu. Weird!
It's strange that feeling of anxiety and thinking about someone all the time. I find when I'm sure that someone is interested in me (and this is only a recent discovery), I'm not so obsessed about them. I'm always happy to think about them or hear from them, but I don't obsess so much. It's a good feeling.
As I was reading the piece of your post on pre-identity politics, I had the strongest sense of deja vu. Weird!
It's strange that feeling of anxiety and thinking about someone all the time. I find when I'm sure that someone is interested in me (and this is only a recent discovery), I'm not so obsessed about them. I'm always happy to think about them or hear from them, but I don't obsess so much. It's a good feeling.
You're probably right, Spins, that he's not so super-interested. I'm at least not sure. But my challenge for these times is to sit with the obsessive-ness and the not-knowing, at least for longer than I normally would have.
"The authentic Jew" Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
When I see my uncles at the end of this month I will ask them if they're imposters.
When I see my uncles at the end of this month I will ask them if they're imposters.
# posted by 
: 4:04 PM
: 4:04 PM
To Dan and Mystic, regarding your queries about "authenticity"--
By studying what people thought of the authentic jew and how they struggled with the concept at certain moment in history, I am not endorsing the existence of such a person. However, by studying the moment in which people thought about that, I feel like I can get into larger themes of identity, and the whole French concept of "universalism" which definitely has its flaws. The point is that "authentic Jew", "authentic Arab", "authentic woman", "authentic Black"--these were all elusive categories, and many writers tried to define them. By looking at the debates, I can learn something more about mentalities and struggles within said communities.
oh, and spins: the deja vu probably came from the fact that i've written about this before...
-Hammer
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By studying what people thought of the authentic jew and how they struggled with the concept at certain moment in history, I am not endorsing the existence of such a person. However, by studying the moment in which people thought about that, I feel like I can get into larger themes of identity, and the whole French concept of "universalism" which definitely has its flaws. The point is that "authentic Jew", "authentic Arab", "authentic woman", "authentic Black"--these were all elusive categories, and many writers tried to define them. By looking at the debates, I can learn something more about mentalities and struggles within said communities.
oh, and spins: the deja vu probably came from the fact that i've written about this before...
-Hammer
# posted by : 5:04 PM
: 5:04 PM Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
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