Israeli-Palestinian intersectional cringe dramedy: HaTasritai ( The Screenwriter ) as case study

Abstract

This article examines the emergence of ‘intersectional cringe dramedy’ in the Israeli television landscape, following the concept of the ‘feminist cringe comedy’ (Nussbaum, 2017) and building on Havas and Sulimma’s observation on dramedies dealing with ‘intersectional relations of identity politics’ (Havas and Sulimma, 2020). The study first surveys how the Israeli sitcom has been influenced by American and British sitcoms, both in textual characteristics and discursive features, eventually leading to the rise of ‘cringe dramedy’. The article then analyses HaTasritai (The Screenwriter) as a case study, examining how generic awareness facilitates viewer identification with the series’ Palestinian-Israeli protagonist as he navigates the contradictions of Palestinian cultural production within Israeli society. This complex identity position, as I will argue, becomes central to both the narrative of the series and the cringe-inducing viewing experience for the Israeli audience.

Keywords

television sitcom cringe intersectionality Israel

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