Untitled - Memorial University of Newfoundland

When Mark identified "neurotic self-destruction" as "essential to the: Jewish argument,"
he began to identify some ofthe less contentual, but nonetheless significant. aspects of
Jewish cinema Further on in the same conversation, Mark begins 10 posit a definition of
what he terms the "Jewish sensibility," which I quote at length:
Mark: And here's the litmus test: in the moment of greatest happiness,
there has always got to be some sadness. Some melancholy. And
that is what ",ill make it a Jewish sensibility. I think. That's what
makes a Jewish sensibility.
Mikel: Ok, but ifyou're watching a movie, how do you know whether or
not it's incidentally in the mix, or it has to be - in the mix?
Mark: No, I'm saying - a Je'hish filmmaker is most likely to include that
in what he is doing because he can't help it. 'Cause it is so
ingrained in the culture. You know. someone else could also have
a melancholic point ofview, it doesn't mean thai its impossible for
someone else to have -
Jeannie: What about Russians?
Mark: They borrowed it from the Jews. There were lots ofJews in Russia.
Jeannie: Ok. no -t
Pam: They killed them. they took it.
Mark: They killed them. they take their melancholy. 'Where's my damn
melancholy? Ah no. Same look it again!' (Mark. Pam. and
Jeannie, personal interview, 9701).
As McLaughlin noted:
To have a theory is to ha...·e a set of assumptions that make your
interpretive aCls possible. Anyone who produces or consumes discourse
has such a set ofassumptions.... To du Iheory is to pay conscious
attention to those assumptions. 10 think critically about how reading
happens. how meaning is produced. how texts have their effects. etc.
(McLaughlin: 34).
Mark is a vernacular theorist f10r e:mdlence: he not only has a theory, a taxonomic system
which he uses to interpret cinematic texIs identified as Jewish. but what is more
important, he can do theory. by applying those theoretical assumptions beyond the
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