A neoliberal lens : appropriation and re-representation of Kabbalah and Kabbalistic artifacts

The purpose of this study is to question what sort of symbolic space does Kabbalah\ud occupy in Western culture that requires its appropriation and re-representation and how\ud do the popularized symbols of Western Kabbalah contribute to the discourse of grand\ud narratives that provide a neoliberal perspective on truth and power? Engaging a\ud poststructuralist paradigm of critical theory and cultural studies, the concepts of\ud Benjamin???s mechanical reproduction, de Certeau???s tactical modes of enunciation, and\ud Jameson???s depthlessness, pastiche, and schizophrenia are used to analyze The Red String Book, a publication coming out of The Kabbalah Center. This project works to unpack The Red String Book to illustrate how the foundations of truth and history found in the text are unstable and impossible. The shifting discourse of ideas, vernaculars, objects, and meanings that evolve within consumer popular culture are socially reconstructing the history of kabbalistic and Jewish traditions. In a cultural context where identities are fragmented, it is imperative that the relationship between the Other and the material world be discussed and analyzed. Therefore the study of culture as commodity helps define the disconnect between cultural history and material production of culture under the politics of neoliberal capitalism