Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Utopian Transgressions: Intimate Relationships across Social Boundaries

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Intimate Relationships in Cinema, Literature and Visual Culture

  • 706 Accesses

Abstract

Miri Talmon, in her essay “Utopian Transgressions: Intimate Relationships across Social Boundaries,” notes that romance motion fiction, and in particular romantic comedies, offers an emotional and ideological confirmation of the stability and durability of romantic love in a rapidly transforming, constantly changing society. Romantic films, telenovelas, and romance TV drama series bring to the screen a utopian promise of the power of love to transcend social boundaries and hierarchies. Israeli cinema and television are created in a multicultural, immigrant society. Both motion fiction arts are fascinated by intercultural and inter-ethnic romance and its possible contribution to a cohesive, integrated society. In this chapter, Talmon focuses on the first season of the Israeli TV drama series Ananda (2012–2015), created by Dana Modan. Modan brings into the series her feminine and generational sensibilities, as well as the utopian trajectory of the romance genre. Ananda tells about a Jewish Israeli woman and an Arab Israeli man who fall in love against all odds in India of all places. The chapter discusses how the protagonists’ intimate relationship, which transcends national/social/cultural/religious boundaries in this made-for-TV utopian universe, as well as the discourse which surrounded this TV drama beyond the fictional romance offer alternative narratives and images, which bridge the social differences and reconcile them through harmony, intimacy, and true love.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 89.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Deleyto, Celestino, and Peter William Evans. “Introduction: Surviving Love.” In Terms of Endearment: Hollywood Romantic Comedy of the 1980s and 1990s. Eds. Celestino Deleyto and Peter William Evans. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 1–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, William Peter and Deleyto, Celestino. “Introduction: Surviving Love”. In Terms of Endearment: Hollywood Romantic Comedy of the 1980s and 1990s. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feierberg, Mordechai Ze’ev (1899). Le’An? (in Hebrew: Where to?). Tel Aviv: Knesset Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forester, E. M. A Passage to India. London: Penguin Books. 1969.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gershenson, Olga. “Immigrant Cinema: Russian Israelis on Screen and Behind the Camera.” In Israeli Cinema: Identities in Motion. Eds. Miri Talmon and Yaron Peleg. Austin TX: University of Texas Press. 2011. 134–148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gertz, Nurith. Myths in Israeli Culture: Captives of a Dream. Portland, OR: Vallentine Mitchell. 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert, Elizabeth. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything across Italy, India and Indonesia. London: Bloomsbury. 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  • Talmon, Miri. “The End of a World, the Beginning of a New World: Authenticity, History and Memory in the Film Turn Left at the End of the World.” In Identities in Motion: The Israeli Cinema Reader. Eds. Miri Talmon and Yaron Peleg. Austin, TX: Texas University Press. 2011a. 340–355.

    Google Scholar 

  • Talmon, Miri. “Israeli Television as Discourse of Identity—Editor’s Introduction”. Special Issue of the Israel Communication Association Journal, Media Frames [Hebrew: Misgarot Media]. Theme of the special issue: Israeli Television as Discourse of Identity. 2011b. [Hebrew]

    Google Scholar 

  • Loshitzky, Yosefa. “Forbidden Love in the Holy Land.” In Identity Politics on the Israeli Screen. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. 2001. 112–153.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mehta, Binita. “Emigrants Twice Displaced: Race, Color and Identity in Mira Nair’s Mississippi Masala.” In Multiculturalism, Postcoloniality and Transnational Media. Eds. Robert Stam and Ella Shohat. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 2003. 153–169.

    Google Scholar 

  • Modleski, Tania. “The Search for Tomorrow in Today’s Soap Operas”, In Femisnist Television Criticism-A Reader. Chalotte Brunsdon, Julie D’Acci, Lynn Spigel, eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1997. 36–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newcomb, Horace, and Paul M. Hirsch “Television as a Cultural Forum.” In Television—The Critical View. Ed. Horace Newcomb. New York: Oxford University Press. 1987. 455–470.

    Google Scholar 

  • Padva, Gilad, and Miri. Talmon “Gotta Have an Effeminate Heart: The Politics of Effeminacy and ‘Sissyness’ in a Nostalgic Israeli TV Musical.” Feminist Media Studies 8, 1. 2008: 69–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peleg, Yaron. Israeli Culture between the Two Intifadas: A Brief Romance. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. 2008.

    Google Scholar 

  • Preston, Catherine L. “Hanging on a Star: The Resurrection of the Romance Film in the 1990s.” In Film Genre: New Critical Essays. Ed. Wheeler Winston Dixon. Albany, New York: SUNY Press. 2000. 227–243.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubinfeld, Mark. Bound to Bond: Gender, Genre, and the Hollywood Romantic Comedy. Westport, CT: Praeger. 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shohat, Ella. “From Orientalism to Bourekas.” In Israeli Cinema: East/West and the Politics of Representation. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. 1989. 124–154.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spigel, Lynn. “The Suburban Home Companion: Television and the Neighborhood Ideal in Post-War America.” In Feminist Television Criticism: A Reader. Eds. Charlotte Brunsdon, Julie D’Acci, and Lynn Spigel. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1997. 211–234.

    Google Scholar 

  • Talmon, Miri. “Paradigms of Youth and Collective Identity in Popular Israeli Culture.” In Youth and the Global Media. Eds. Sue Ralph. et al. Luton: University of Luton Press. 1999. 219–228.

    Google Scholar 

  • Talmon, Miri, and Tamar Liebes. “Space and Identity in the Israeli TV dramas: Florentin and Bat-Yam New-York.” Kesher. Vol. No 27. Tel Aviv: Institute for Jewish Press, Tel Aviv University. 2000. 41–48 (in Hebrew).

    Google Scholar 

  • Talmon, Miri, Israeli Graffiti: Nostalgia, Groups and Collective Identity in Israeli Cinema. Haifa: Haifa University Press and Tel-Aviv: the Open University of Israel Press. 2001a (in Hebrew).

    Google Scholar 

  • Talmon, Miri. “Here, There and Nowhere: Representations of Space and the Negotiation of Identity in Israeli Cinema and Television of the 1990s.” In Cahiers de L’université de Perpignan, No. 32: Arts et Identité Regionale Eds. P. Carmignani and T. Jappy. Perpignan: Perpignan University Press. 2001b.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taub, Gadi. Hamered Hashafuf (The Dispirited Rebellion). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishers. 1997. (In Hebrew)

    Google Scholar 

  • Wartenberg Thomas, E. Unlikely Couples: Movie Romance as Social Criticism. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. 1999.

    Google Scholar 

Filmography

  • Ananda. TV drama series. HOT Israeli Cable TV. 2012, 2015. Created, written, and directed by Dana Modan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arab Labor [aka Avoda Aravit]. TV sitcom. Keshet Television. 2007, 2010, 2012. Created by Sayed Kashua; first season directed by Ronny Ninio; second and third seasons directed by Shai Kapon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Double Date. TV series. Beep. 2002–2004. Director: Ilan Abudi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eat, Pray, Love. Director: Ryan Murphy. Performers: Julia Roberts, Javier Bardem, and Richard Jenkins. Columbia Pictures, 2010.

    Google Scholar 

  • Florentin. TV drama series. Tel’ad/Channel 2/Hot 3. 1997–2001. Created by Eytan Fox and Udi Zamberg. Directors: Eytan Fox, Ori Sivan, and Arik Rothstein.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Director: Stanley Kramer. Performers: Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, and Katharine Hepburn. Columbia Pictures. 1967.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnny and the Knights of the Galilee [aka Johnny ve’Abirei HaGaleel]. Yes Drama HD. 2015–2016. Created by Danny Rosenberg and Tom Shoval. Director: Danny Rosenberg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Late Marriage [aka Khatuna Meukheret]. Director: Dover Kosashvili. Performers: Lior Ashkenazi, Ronit Elkabetz, and Moni Moshonov. Transfax Films. 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lost and Found [aka Avedot Umetziot]. TV drama series. Reshet/Channel 2. 2008. Created by Dana Modan and Savi Gabizon. Director: Savi Gabizon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Love Hurts [aka Ahava Ze Ko’ev]. TV drama series. Channel 10. 2002. Created by Dana Modan. Director: Ram Nahari.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maid in Manhattan USA. Director: Wayne Wang. Performers: Jennifer Lopez, Ralph Fiennes, and Natasha Richardson. Revolution Films. 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mississippi Masala. Director: Mira Nair. Performers: Denzel Washington, Sarita Choudhury, and Roshan Seth. Channel Four Films. 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  • My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Director: Joel Zwick. Performers: Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, and Michael Constantine. Home Box Office (HBO). 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • A Touch Away. TV drama series. Reshet/Channel 2. 2007. Created by Zafrir Kochanocsky, Ronit Weiss-Berkowitz, and Ron Ninio. Directed by Ron Ninio. Written by Ronit Weiss Berkovitz, Amit Lior, and Shuki Ben Naim.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Wedding Planner. Director: Adam Shankman. Performers: Jennifer Lopez, Matthew McConaughey, and Bridgette Wilson-Sampras. Columbia Pictures. 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Weddings Season [aka Onat Hakhatunot]. TV series. Comedy Central (Israel). 2009, 2011. Created by Sigal Shavit and Inbar Cohen Arbel. Directors: Guy Michael and Asaf Bilt.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Steve Tisch School of Film and Television, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel

    Miri Talmon

Authors
  1. Miri Talmon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Beit Berl Academic College , Beit Berl, Israel

    Gilad Padva

  2. Beit Berl Academic College , Beit Berl, Israel

    Nurit Buchweitz

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Talmon, M. (2017). Utopian Transgressions: Intimate Relationships across Social Boundaries. In: Padva, G., Buchweitz, N. (eds) Intimate Relationships in Cinema, Literature and Visual Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55281-1_14

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation