Friends, Judaism, and the Holiday Armadillo: Mapping a Rhetoric of Postidentity Politics

✍ Scribed by Naomi R. Rockler

• Book ID: 111088829
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 133 KB
• Volume: 16
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1050-3293
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2885.2006.00278.x

✦ Synopsis

Critical communication literature that problematizes postfeminism, therapeutic rhetoric, Whiteness, and representations of marginalized groups all point to a comprehensive rhetoric of postidentity politics, a rhetoric characterized by the assumption that identity politics are no longer relevant. In this essay, I analyze an episode of the popular television program, Friends, in which Jewish identity politics are represented. I situate my critique of this episode first within the history of Jewish representation on television but primarily as a starting point to map out the characteristics of a rhetoric of postidentity politics.