Jewishly Universal - Woody Allen's Film-Persona, its Jewish Roots and Universal Appeal, with references to Annie Hall and Manhattan

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Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 2,0 (B), Humboldt-University of Berlin (Instituet für Sociology), language: English, abstract: Woody Allen, known as the Intellectual among American filmmakers, isone of the most productive Jewish artists of our time. Never limiting himselfon just one genre, he has entertained audiences with humorous one-liners,stand-up routines, comic prose, plays, screenplays, acting roles, and filmdirection for more than half a decade. His self-mocking style, frequent tripleinvolvement (writer, director, actor) in his films and casting of his real lifelovers (e.g. Diane Keaton) as his characters film lovers, have led to adiffusion of Allen the private person, Allen the public person and the socalled Allen persona, a type also known as Stadtneurotiker.Allen, born Allan Stewart Konigsberg, has often denied (ininterviews) that Jewishness plays a major role in his work, other than justsimply being a part of himself. Its not on my mind; its not part of myartistic consciousness. Of course, any character I play would be Jewish, justbecause Im Jewish.1 This claimed disinterest and his often negative andcritical depiction of Jewish characters and habits has led to him beinglabeled as a self-hating Jew. Nevertheless, many critics argue that the Allenfilm-persona and Allens humor have their roots in an old Jewish literaryand comedic tradition and the central concept of the schlemiel as hero,which he has adapted to his individual circumstances - late Twentiethcentury, New York, English etc. - and successfully transferred to the filmmedium.Although, as already mentioned, Woody Allen explores verydifferent genres, one major characteristic of his work is the persistence ofthe character whose role Woody Allen performed himself most of the timebut had sometimes interpreted by other actors: his persona.2 [...]1 Allen as quoted by Marie-Phoenix Rivet, Woody Allen: The Relationship Between thePersona and the Author in King, ed. Woody Allen. A Casebook, p. 272 Rivet, p. 23

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