Remapping the Jazz Singer from the 1920s to the 1980s
Remapping the Jazz Singer from the 1920s to the 1980s

Summary/Abstract: The Jazz Singer (1927), a film based on Samson Raphaelson’s short story, “The Day of Atonement,” published in 1922, and inspired by the life of one of the most successful twentieth century Jewish actors, Al Jolson, played an important role in the film industry, as it anticipated the end of the silent film era, and it also managed to offer a closer look at the atmosphere of the Jewish American life, illustrating the main issues that the Jewish American families had to deal with at the beginning of the twentieth century. Later on, three more films were made, and they adapted the original story to the realities of the periods when they were shot, the 1950s, and the 1980s, respectively. The aim of this paper is to highlight the way in which the film industry addressed intergenerational dynamics in Jewish American families during the 1920s and the 1980s, respectively, by comparing and analyzing the original Jazz Singer (1927) and its 1980 remake, with respect to the arising conflict between tradition and ambition, to identity issues, and to the relations established between family members, in conversation with critical sources by Vincent Brook, Joel Rosenberg, and Stephen Whitfield.

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