Yehuda Moraly


Yehuda Moraly, a theater researcher, playwright, director and actor, is a professor emeritus of theater studies at the Hebrew University. His fields of research are mainly French theater and film. He taught theater at the Sorbonne, the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Bar Ilan University and the Hebrew University. Moraly organized numerous symposiums and an annual Student Theater Festival at the Department of Theater Studies of the Hebrew University.

Research

In his researches, Moraly undermines generally admitted cultural images.
His recent research is devoted to the representations of Jewish characters in Occupied France's Theater and Film: articles include Les Enfants du Paradis, Volpone, La Folle de Chaillot that were published in Revolution in Paradise: Veiled representations of Jewish characters in Occupied France. The purpose of the book is to show that, contrary to the accepted view, some of these films were intimately linked to the political situation. They convey the demonization of characters that, while not specifically presented as Jews nevertheless manifested anti-Semitic stereotypes of the Jew as ugly, rootless, low, hypocritical, immoral, cruel and power hungry. All movies analysed present characters not identified as Jews but who exhibit negative “Jewish” traits, in contrast to the aristocratic characters whom they aspire to emulate. They demonstrate, implicitly, central themes of explicit anti-Semitic propaganda.

Jean Genet

His first book: Jean Genet, la vie écrite opposed Genet's official image and showed Jean Genet to be a highly cultured writer whose need to write determined all the aspects of his life. The book became a point of reference for research on Genet's work. Le Maître fou analyses Genet's theoretical texts on theater and art. These texts, neglected by scholarship, offer a key for the comprehension of Genet's dramatic work and are a deep reflexion about the powers and the limits of artistic creation. In this book, Moraly focuses on Genet's texts both on theatre and, more broadly, on aesthetics, from his study of Cocteau to his essay "That Strange Word..." and including writings on his various plays and also on Léonor Fini, Rembrandt, Giacometti, and "The Tightrope Walker", texts in which, Moraly states, Genet analyses his own views on the creation, function, and power of art.

Paul Claudel

The second theme of his research, the theatrical creation of Paul Claudel, is not so far from the first as it may seem. In Claudel metteur en scène : la frontière entre les deux mondes, Moraly opposes the accepted image of Claudel as a paragon of arrière-garde theater. The book reveals unknown aspects of Claudel's work: his ballets, his theatrical experiments and his exploration of a new kind of musical theater.

Playwright

Moraly is also a playwright. His plays have been produced and published in France and in other countries : Les Catcheuses, Sissi en enfer ; Cendrillon ; Gimpel ; Le Tombeau des poupées; Strip; Etrangle-moi, mon amour ;The Barcelona Dispute ; La Musique ; Voices; Les merveilles du fond des mers ou un chef d'œuvre à gonfler soi-même.
His last play, Le Grand Tombeau des Beaux-Arts was published in Editions Orizons in 2020

List of publications

Books

Genet, La vie écrite , Pp. 355. Paris: Editions de la Différence, 1988.
Les negres au port de la lune, Pp. 286. Paris: Editions de la Difference, 1988.
Claudel metteur en scène, la frontière entre les deux mondes, Pp. 364. Besançon : Presses universitaires franc-comtoises, 1998.
Le Maître fou, Pp. 185. Saint-Genouph: Librairie Nizet, 2009.
L'oeuvre impossible: Claudel, Genet, Fellini Pp. 208. Paris: Editions le Manuscrit, 2013.
Revolution in Paradise: veiled representations of Jewish Characters in the cinema of occupied France, Pp. 276. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2019.

Plays

Les Catcheuses, Paris: Editions de Babel, 1973.
Sissi en enfer, Rennes: Maison de la Culture de Rennes, 1975.
Tombeaux de poupées, Paris: Palais de Chaillot, 1983.
Strip, Paris: Avant-Scène, 1986.
Les merveilles du fond des mers ou un chef d'œuvre à gonfler soi-même, Tel-Aviv: Continuum, 2009.
Le Grand Tombeau des Beaux-Arts, Paris: Orizons, 2020.