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“Gypsies” in European Literature and CultureThe Deportation to Transnistria and the Exoticization of the Roma in Zaharia Stancu’s Novel The Gypsy Tribe

“Gypsies” in European Literature and Culture: The Deportation to Transnistria and the... [The novel Şatra, translated into English as The Gypsy Tribe, deals with an often silenced past: it focuses on the ethnic minority of Gypsies in Romania during World War II, but never calls the members of the tribe by their name. In the Romanian original, the author does not use the words “Gypsies” or “Roma”; instead, he describes their physiognomy, talks about their eyes, or uses euphemisms. During communism, indeed, the name Gypsies1 rarely appeared in print. Even in the census, the members of a numerous ethnic community were included under the category of naţionalităţi conlocuitoare (coinhabiting nationalities). The invisibility of the Roma within cultural and literary representations during communism is, to some extent, reiterated in the scarcity of texts about the treatment of Gypsies during the Romani Holocaust and the camps in Transnistria. It is only today that historical texts start to go back to the war documents, and monographs attempt to inscribe the historical and social dimensions of the ethnic group of Roma in Romania. In 1968, when the novel Şatra was published, the topic of Gypsies was often taboo, and the author takes many precautions in describing the deportation of a nomadic tribe. While the novel claims to offer a critique of the conditions and the destiny of the Gypsies sent to Transnistria, it perpetuates stereotypes and, thus, contributes to reinforcing the prejudice against the Roma minority. Today, the reader needs to recontextualize the novel and uncover the practices of exoticization and romanticization often used by the author to the detriment of historical fact.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

“Gypsies” in European Literature and CultureThe Deportation to Transnistria and the Exoticization of the Roma in Zaharia Stancu’s Novel The Gypsy Tribe

Part of the Studies in European Culture and History Book Series
Editors: Glajar, Valentina; Radulescu, Domnica
Cherciu, Lucia
“Gypsies” in European Literature and Culture — Oct 15, 2015
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References (2)

Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan US
Copyright
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc. 2008
ISBN
978-1-349-37154-9
Pages
161 –177
DOI
10.1057/9780230611634_9
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[The novel Şatra, translated into English as The Gypsy Tribe, deals with an often silenced past: it focuses on the ethnic minority of Gypsies in Romania during World War II, but never calls the members of the tribe by their name. In the Romanian original, the author does not use the words “Gypsies” or “Roma”; instead, he describes their physiognomy, talks about their eyes, or uses euphemisms. During communism, indeed, the name Gypsies1 rarely appeared in print. Even in the census, the members of a numerous ethnic community were included under the category of naţionalităţi conlocuitoare (coinhabiting nationalities). The invisibility of the Roma within cultural and literary representations during communism is, to some extent, reiterated in the scarcity of texts about the treatment of Gypsies during the Romani Holocaust and the camps in Transnistria. It is only today that historical texts start to go back to the war documents, and monographs attempt to inscribe the historical and social dimensions of the ethnic group of Roma in Romania. In 1968, when the novel Şatra was published, the topic of Gypsies was often taboo, and the author takes many precautions in describing the deportation of a nomadic tribe. While the novel claims to offer a critique of the conditions and the destiny of the Gypsies sent to Transnistria, it perpetuates stereotypes and, thus, contributes to reinforcing the prejudice against the Roma minority. Today, the reader needs to recontextualize the novel and uncover the practices of exoticization and romanticization often used by the author to the detriment of historical fact.]

Published: Oct 15, 2015

Keywords: European History; Canonical Text; Roma Community; Nomadic Tribe; Romanian Statistic

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