Irony

There is a common thread of irony among all three of the articles: "The Promised Gas Mask," "A Dog's Life," and "Jerusalem: Not the Mother of all Cities." In the first two articles, I was particularly struck by the tragic tone that cuts through the surface layer of humor. I think that Suad Amiry actually conveys the sense of injustice and frustration more through her writing style in which she makes it a point to inject humor and not focus on directly listing grievances. I also think it's very interesting that she chose to use gas masks and dogs symbolically. Although Galit Hasan-Rokem's article also deals with irony, it does so in a much more direct manner. It wasn't until Hasan-Roken pointed out in this article, that I realized that land is in fact very often likened to the female persona. It is interesting to note that in characterizing Jerusalem as a female, people have called the city anything from beloved mother to even prostitute. Thus, Hasan-Roken illustrates that characterizing Jerusalem as such undermines both the female gender as well as the city.

For my final project I want to focus on music in Jerusalem. In particular, I'm interested in finding some way to showcase the immense diversity within that region that has manifested itself in the music. As we saw in the movie, it's not just that there are many different group of people, but also a lot of diversity within each group. I haven't quite figured out exactly how to go about this yet though.