The authorship of Uri Zohar: the ethics and aesthetics of the Archimedean lever. Issue 3 (3rd July 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kohen Raz, Odeya
• Is Part Of: Journal of modern Jewish studies. Volume 18:Issue 3(2019)
• Page Start: 343
• Page End: 368
• Publication Date: 2019-07-03
• Subjects: Authorship -- aesthetics -- ethics -- Archimedean lever -- Israeli male sexual energy -- Zionism; Jews -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Judaism -- Periodicals; Jews -- Periodicals; 305.8924
• DOI: 10.1080/14725886.2019.1612569
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1472-5886

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article discusses Zohar's subversive reflexive aesthetics, termed the "Archimedean-lever ethics, " comprised of three stages: the world rendered from one perspective; the same world rendered from a different perspective, challenging or destroying the first; and awareness of the shift of perspectives. It argues that Zohar's creative energy, imbued with male sexuality, derives from this collision, and examines its ethical aspect in relation to Zionist values during the 1950s and 1960s. Zionism and Israel should always consider more than one perspective, being able not only to build but also to destroy (convictions, territories) in order to bring change, with destruction thus becoming a particular form of creation. However, in Zohar's films made during the 1970s, the male sexual energy becomes an endless sexual appetite, expressed mostly through coveting gazes, which is no more than a cover up for male impotency, tantamount to Israel's endless appetite for land.