Romani people in fiction

Gypsy Fortune Teller by Taras Shevchenko.

Many fictional depictions of the Roma in literature and art present Romanticized narratives of their supposed mystical powers of fortune telling, and their supposed irascible or passionate temper which is paired with an indomitable love of freedom and a habit of criminality. Critics of how the Roma have been portrayed in popular culture point out similarities to portrayals of Jewish people, with both groups stereotyped negatively as wandering, spreading disease, abducting children, and violating and murdering others.[1]

The Roma were portrayed in Victorian and modern British literature as having "sinister occult and criminal tendencies"[2] and as associated with "thievery and cunning",[3] and in English Renaissance and baroque theatre as incorporating "elements of outlandish charm and elements which depict [them] as the lowest of social outcasts," connected with "magic and charms," and "juggling and cozening."[4] In opera, literature and music, throughout Europe, Roma women have been portrayed as provocative, sexually available, gaudy, exotic and mysterious.[5] Hollywood and European movies, as well as popular music and other forms of pop culture, have promoted similar stereotypes.[6][7][8][9][10]

Particularly notable representations of the Roma appear in classics like Carmen by Prosper Mérimée and adapted by Georges Bizet, Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Miguel de Cervantes' La Gitanilla. The Roma were also heavily romanticized in the Soviet Union, a classic example being the 1975 Tabor ukhodit v Nebo. A more realistic depiction of contemporary Romani in the Balkans, featuring Roma lay actors speaking in their native dialects, although still playing with established clichés of a Roma penchant for both magic and crime, was presented by Emir Kusturica in his Time of the Gypsies (1988) and Black Cat, White Cat (1998). Another realistic depiction of the Roma in Yugoslavia is I Even Met Happy Gypsies (1967).

  1. ^ Mayall, David (2009). Gypsy Identities 1500-2000: From Egipcyans and Moon-men to the Ethnic Romany. Routledge. p. 266. ISBN 978-0415566377.
  2. ^ Bardi, Abigail R. (2007). The Gypsy as Trope in Victorian and Modern British Literature. p. 65. ISBN 978-0549452898.
  3. ^ MacKay, Marina, ed. (2009). The Cambridge companion to the literature of World War II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 35. ISBN 978-0521887557.
  4. ^ Paola Pugliatti; Alessandro Serpieri, eds. (2008). English Renaissance scenes: from canon to margins (1. Aufl. ed.). Bern: Peter Lang. pp. 293–295. ISBN 978-3039110797.
  5. ^ Reed, Toni (1999). Button, Marilyn Demarest (ed.). The foreign woman in British literature: exotics, aliens, and outsiders (1. publ. ed.). Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. pp. 152–155. ISBN 978-0313309281.
  6. ^ Vasiliie Demos; Marcia Texler Segal, eds. (1994). Ethnic women: a multiple status reality. Dix Hills, N.Y.: General Hall. p. 52. ISBN 978-1882289233.
  7. ^ Smith, Jerilyn. The marginalization of shadow minorities (Roma) and its impact on opportunities (Thesis). p. 90.
  8. ^ Smith, Paul Julian (2000). The moderns: time, space, and subjectivity in contemporary Spanish culture (1. publ. ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 181. ISBN 978-0198160007.
  9. ^ Malvinni, David (2004). The Gypsy caravan: from real Roma to imaginary Gypsies in Western music and film. New York, N.Y.: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415969994.
  10. ^ Brunvand, Jan Harold (1998). American folklore: an encyclopedia. New York: Routledge. p. 743. ISBN 978-0815333500.