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Romani people in fiction

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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 films 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).

Shakespeare

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  • 1596: A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare – Which includes the lines "Sees Helen's beauty in the brow of Egypt" ("Egyptian" was used to refer to the Roma of England). Here, Theseus is imagining the face of a lover can make the dark-skinned Roma look like Helen of Troy, who he considers more beautiful.[11][12]
  • 1600: As You Like It by Shakespeare – He uses the word "ducdame" (Act II, Sc. 5), possibly a corruption or mishearing of the old Anglo-Romani word dukka me (“I foretell” or “I tell fortunes”)[13][14]
  • 1603: Othello by Shakespeare – Desdemona's handkerchief a gift to Othello's mother is a gift from an "Egyptian charmer" who can almost read the thoughts of people.[15]
  • 1607: Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare – Cleopatra is twice referred to as a "gipsy," both in the play's opening speech and following Antony's defeat at the Battle of Actium. Early modern people erroneously believed that the Roma had originally hailed from ancient Egypt.
  • 1611: The Tempest by Shakespeare – Caliban, the only human inhabitant of the mythical island, is thought to be named after the word Kaliban meaning "black" or "with blackness" in Anglo-Romani.[16] As the first Roma immigrants arrived in England a century before Shakespeare wrote The Tempest, it is thought he may have been influenced by their looks and exoticised them.[14][15]

Other media

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  • The Curse of Strahd supplement for Dungeons & Dragons includes a fantasy version of the Roma, the Vistani. Early printings portrayed the Vistani in a stereotyped light.[17]
  • In Dom Casmurro, romance by Brazilian writer Machado de Assis, describes one of the characters as "Gipsy eyes, oblique and disguisid. Whose eyes that notice everythink, notice everything without say a think".
  • In the British series Peaky Blinders, the family of the main characters, like Tommy Shelby, are Romanis. Despite that, the historical Peaky Blinders were not Romanis.
  • In the Yiddish literature and in the whole Ashkenazi Jewish imaginary, is cited many Romani characters in books and musics like in Di Alte Tsigayner ('The Old Romani'), Di Kleine Tsigayner ('The Little Romani') and Budapesht ('Budapest'). The last one is about a Romani band that plays tragic love songs to a Jewish boy that have a broken heart by a Polish girl.
  • In Marvel Comics, many characters are Romanis like Doctor Doom, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.
  • In DC Comics there are Romani characters like Dick Grayson, Madame Xanadu and Ice.

See also

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Further reading

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  • Glajar, Valentina; Radulescu, Domnica, eds. (2008). "Gypsies" in European literature and culture. New York, NY, USA: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-349-37154-9. OCLC 156831916.

References

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  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.
  11. ^ The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Joseph Allen Bryant
  12. ^ When Romeo Met Juliet by Leslie Dunkling
  13. ^ As You Like It by William Shakespeare Editorial Review – School Library Journal vol. 55 iss. 3 p. 171 (c) 3 January 2009
  14. ^ a b E. K. Chambers. William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems, 2 vols., (Vol. 1, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1930)
  15. ^ a b Shakespeare's Caliban: a cultural history by Alden T. Vaughan, Virginia Mason Vaughan 1993 Cambridge University Press
  16. ^ Albert Kluyber, "Kalis and Calibon", trans. A. E. H. Swain. Englische Studien XXI (1895): 326-28; John Holland A Hystorical Survey of The Gypsies (London printed for the author 1816) p. 148; B.C. Smart and H. T. Crofton, eds., The Dialect of The English Gypsies 2nd ed., London 1875. p. 92.
  17. ^ Marshall, Cass (23 June 2020). "Wizards of the Coast is addressing racist stereotypes in Dungeons & Dragons". Polygon. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
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