Romani people in fiction

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Gypsy Fortune Teller by Taras Shevchenko.

Many fictional depictions of the Romani in literature and art present Romanticized narratives of their supposed mystical powers of fortune telling, and their supposed irascible or passionate temper paired with an indomitable love of freedom and a habit of criminality. Critics of how Romani people 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]

Romani people 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, Romani 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 Romani people 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 Romani 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 Romani lay actors speaking in their native dialects, although still playing with established clichés of a Romani 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 Romanies in Yugoslavia is I Even Met Happy Gypsies (1967).

Literature

  • 1596: A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare – Which includes the lines "Sees Helen's beauty in the brow of Egypt", Egypt is used to refer to the Romani people of England. In the context that imagining the face of a lover can make the dark-skinned Gypsy look like Helen of Troy, a great beauty.[11][12]
  • 1600: As You Like It a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare – Shakespeare uses the word "ducdame" (Act II, Sc. 5), possibly a corruption or mishearing of the old Romanichal word dukka me or (I foretell or I tell fortunes).[13][14]
  • 1603: Othello by William Shakespeare – Desdemona's handkerchief a gift to Othello's mother is a gift from a Gypsy "Egyptian charmer" who can almost read the thoughts of people.[15]
  • 1611: The Tempest by William Shakespeare – The only human inhabitant of the mythical island the character Caliban is thought to be named after the word Kaliban meaning black or with blackness in the English Romani language.[16] As the first Romani immigrants arrived in England a century before Shakespeare wrote The Tempest, it is thought he may have been influenced by their exotic looks. In this time Romanies in England were targeted for discrimination.[14][15]
  • 1613: Miguel de Cervantes' novel La Gitanilla
  • 1631: Ben Jonson's play Bartholomew Fair. A comedy set in London's Bartholomew Fair where a band of Romani entertain a crowd.
  • 18th century: William Wordsworth's Vagrant Muse. A young homeless woman is welcomed by a band of Gypsies who take her in and offer her charity and companionship.
  • 1722: Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders. Moll's earliest memory is of wandering "among a group of people they call Gypsies or Egyptians" in England.

19th century

20th century

21st century

  • 2001: Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series of fantasy novels. Includes the Tsingani, based on the Roma.
  • 2001: James Herbert's novel Once. A wiccan called Nell Quick is described as alluring and dressed in the manner of a Gypsy woman. She is noted for her extremely beautiful looks and raven-colored dark hair. The novel never fully explains her origins or if she is connected to the Gypsies.
  • 2003: Louise Doughty's novel Fires in the Dark. A boy from a group of nomadic Kalderash Roma, born in a barn in rural Bohemia in 1927, grows up during the Great Depression and the rise of Nazism, is interned in a camp and escapes to take part in the Prague Uprising of May 1945.
  • 2005: Isabel Allende's novel Zorro. Features a clan of Romanies who ally themselves with the titular hero in post-Napoleonic Spain.
  • 2005: Edith Layton's novel Gypsy Lover. Daffyd, the illegitimate son of a noblewoman and a Gypsy, returns to England from a penal colony in Botany Bay to pardon and clear the name of his adopted father the Earl of Egremont.
  • 2006: Louise Doughty's novel Stone Cradle charts one family's path through persecution and tragedy, asking, can the Romany spirit survive in a century that no longer has space for them?
  • 2006–present: Rob Thurman's Cal Leandros novel series. The lead character and his brother are both half-Romani on their mother's side.
  • 2007: Lisa Kleypas's novel Mine Till Midnight and its companion Seduce Me at Sunrise. Feature two half-Romani male protagonists.
  • 2007: Nikki Poppen's The Romany Heiress. The heir to the Earl of Spelthorne is captivated by the arrival of a beautiful Gypsy shows up on his doorstep claiming to be his deceased parents' long lost daughter.
  • 2007: Colum McCann's novel Zoli. Explores the life of a fictional Slovak Romani artist.
  • 2007: Paulo Coelho's novel The Witch of Portobello. The character Athena's biological mother is a Gypsy.
  • 2007: In Sally Gardner's novel The Red Necklace, the main character Yann and his companion Têtu are Gypsy along with the antagonist Kalliovski.
  • 2007: Deanna Raybourn's Lady Julia Grey series (Silent in the Grave, Silent in the Sanctuary, Silent on the Moor, Dark Road to Darjeeling, Dark Inquiry) feature Nicholas Brisbane as the protagonist. Brisbane is the son of a reprobate Scottish nobleman and a Gypsy woman with the power of sight. Throughout the series, a number of Gypsy characters feature prominently.
  • 2007, 2008: Kate Wild's teenage/young adult novels FightGame and FireFight. Thrillers with a science fiction overtone featuring a young Gypsy protagonist called Freedom Smith.
  • 2008: James Rollins' novel The Last Oracle. Cmdr. Gray Pierce must stop a rogue group in Russia from using autistic savant Gypsy descendants from being used as weapons.
  • 2010: Sonia Meyer's novel Dosha, Flight of the Russian Gypsies. About Romani in the 1950s Soviet Union.
  • 2010: Levi Pinfold's children's book The Django (2010), inspired by Romani musician Django Reinhardt
  • 2011: Stef Penney's novel The Invisible Ones. Ray Lovell, a small-time PI of Gypsy descent, is hired to investigate the disappearance of a Romani woman, 7 years previously.
  • 2013: Cazzarola! Anarchy, Romani, Love, Italy by Norman Nawrocki, features an entire Romani family and camp living in Rome, Italy. Talks about the persecution and discrimination the Romani face in Europe.
  • 2015: Linda De Quincey's novel Roma: Charlie and Poppy. The tale of an orphaned Romany child who is adopted by an abusive mother and falls for his adoptive sister who lifts his spirits as he plans his escape.

Other media

  • Georges Bizet's 1875 opera Carmen.
  • The Cirque du Soleil traveling show Varekai takes its name from the Romani language and the characters represented on stage are loosely based on the nomadic way of life associated with the Romani people.

Comics

  • In the Batman series of comics, the character Richard Grayson (a.k.a. Robin and Nightwing) is shown to be of at least 1/4 Romani descent.
  • Twins Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver respectively, of Marvel Comics are of Romani ancestry through their biological mother Magda and raised in the fictional Mount Wundagore. During Marvel's Mystic Arcana the Scarlet Witch was one of the prominently featured mystic characters and depicted her Romani childhood and her encounter with other Marvel mystical characters.
  • Canonical origin of the supervillain Doctor Doom of the Romani people, and was driven to his nominally villainous actions as a response to the persecution of his family. As dictator of the fictional nation of Latveria, Doom has taken a special interest in the welfare of Gypsies, as that is his heritage, and often that race is first to be taken care of in a manner similar to Saddam Hussein showering his Tikriti tribe with benefits.
  • Meggan of the Marvel comics superhero team Excalibur was born to a band of Romanies in England. She was expelled when they saw that she was a shapeshifter, and believed her to be a demon.
  • In the web comic The Science Table Comic, Alex, one of the recurring characters, is a gypsy and is adorned in what is stated by another character as his "Traditional native garbs."
  • Katerina Donlan of Gunnerkrigg Court is referred to as "gypsy" by another character. Tom Sidell, the comic's author, confirmed she is half-Roma, her mother belonging to the gitano ethnical group.

Anime and manga

  • In the anime Blood +, it is implied that the character Haji is Roma. However, he was bought from his caravan at a young age and does not identify as such thereafter.
  • In the anime Cowboy Bebop, the character Faye Valentine claims to be one of the Romani people, though this is later dispelled through her own personal flashbacks.
  • In the anime Kaze to Ki no Uta, Serge Battour is the orphaned son of a viscount and a beautiful Roma woman.
  • In the Code Geass OVA spinoff, Akito the Exiled, the main cast of characters encounter a group of elderly Romani.
  • The Fullmetal Alchemist movie, Conqueror of Shamballa, features Romani women in Pre-Nazi Germany.

Video games

  • The videogame Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King features Romani characters Kalderasha, named after the Kalderash, and his daughter Valentina.
  • In the videogame Psychonauts, a rival gypsy circus curses the main character's family to die in water. The main character and his family are also Romani.
  • In Assassin's Creed: Revelations, courtesan NPCs are replaced by Romanies which act as moving hiding spots and can be used to distract guards.
  • The Crimson Skies character Nathan Zachary has claimed Romani heritage.
  • The four protagonists of Mother Russia Bleeds are all referred to as Romani (their background is vague, but they were apparently raised in an impoverished gypsy camp somewhere in Russia).
  • The videogame Bohemian Killing features a gypsy protagonist guilty of murder, who has to try and convince the jury he didn't do it.

Television

  • The character Willa Monday on the TV show The Finder is Romani.
  • 2013 series Hemlock Grove features a family of Romani.
  • 2002 episode of The Twilight Zone features a female Romani.
  • In the television show Criminal Minds, the fourth-season episode "Bloodlines" depicts a family of Romani who kidnap little girls to marry their sons.
  • 2007 episode of House, in which House must treat a 16-year-old Romani boy with respiratory distress.
  • An episode of Dennis the Menace featured a group of Romanies who visited Dennis's town, were accused of theft, and almost inveigled police Officer Murphy into marrying one of their women, to whom he had offered bread at dinner.
  • In the first season of Car 54, Where Are You, Maureen Stapleton plays a Romani matriarch telling fortunes from a storefront in Toody and Muldoon's precinct. Stereotypical jokes abound. She lifts a guy's wallet, the father is a layabout, the children don't go to school, they pack up and move to another storefront in short order, etc.
  • On the television series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the detectives investigate a missing Romani boy (Season 13, Episode 9).
  • On the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Romanies in 19th Century Romania place a curse on the vampire Angelus to punish him for the murder of a teenage Romani girl, by restoring his human soul (and by extension, his conscience) and forcing him to feel guilt for his crimes. Angel was doomed to misery until he could enjoy a moment of pure happiness. It is later revealed that these Romanies were members of the Kalderash tribe and that the character Jenny Calendar, actually Janna of the Kalderash, is a member of the tribe.
  • Greek television series Whispers of the Heart (Greek: Ψίθυροι Καρδιάς) was about a rich architect who falls in love with a young beautiful gypsy girl. It aired in 1997 and it is one of the most popular, Greek television series.
  • The BBC television series Peaky Blinders revolves around protagonist Tommy Shelby and the Shelby crime family who are of Romani heritage. It also features the Romani Lee family which includes main character Esme Lee, who marries one of the Shelby brothers.
  • In Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock, the sentient anthropomorchi Trash Heap refers to herself as a 'gypsy Trash Heap' when she performs her only act of magic.
  • Lark Rise to Candleford, Series 2 Episode 1 — A BBC costume drama. The village is haunted by the spirit of a young English Romany girl who drowned in the local lake.
  • In the HBO series Carnivàle, the characters of Sophie and her mother Apollonia are said to be Roma.
  • The Chilean telenovela Romané features the life of the Romani in the north of Chile.
  • Ashes to Ashes Series 2 2009 Episode 2 — A British television police drama series set in the 1980s. A police officer tries to clear her name when she is involved in the accidental death of an English Romanichal. She uncovers a premeditated plot to murder him. The episode does include some stereotypical elements as the plot unfolds; namely the plot device of an old Romani clairvoyant and friction between the police and the Romani camp. However these stereotypes are turned on their head as the local doctor who was obsessed with the victims wife is found guilty of poisoning and elements of police corruption. A supporting principal character is revealed to be part Romani.
  • In 2002 the WB television series Charmed aired the episode "The Eyes Have It" which depicted Romanies, referred to as "gypsies", as practicing a magical craft similar to those of modern-day witches. Much like the star witches in the series, Romanies possess supernatural powers and pass down family Books of Shadows.
  • The Canterville Ghost (1974) Television dramatization - Based on the (1887) short story by Oscar Wilde. An English gypsy group are suspected of kidnapping a girl but are innocent and join in the search.
  • In The Andy Griffith Show, episode 182 in the sixth season is titled "The Gypsies". A family of Romanies (one of whom is played by Jamie Farr) places a curse on the town of Mayberry.
  • In the MacGyver episode "Thief of Budapest", MacGyver helps a Romani family escape from the KGB.[17]

Film

Romani characters are frequently depicted in werewolf films, including Maleva the fortuneteller (Maria Ouspenskaya) in The Wolf Man and the Romani clan of female werewolves in Cry of the Werewolf.

Year Title Country Notes
2014-2019 John Wick (franchise) US Dir. : Chad Stahelski. John Wick (aka Jardani Jovonovich), is a Belarussian Ruska Roma.
2012 The Dark Knight Rises US Romani villain - Bane.
2011 Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows US Dir. : Guy Ritchie. Madam Simza (Sim) Heron - 'a mysterious Gypsy' of the French Romanies or Manouche.
2010 The Wolfman US Romani fortune-teller.
2009 Drag Me to Hell US Dir. : Sam Raimi. Horror. An ambitious bank worker incurs the wrath of an elderly Romani woman, who places an ancient curse on her.[18]
2009 Freedom France A Romani family travels the French roads during the Second World War. They learn that a new law forbids them from being nomadic.
2008 Khamsa France The main character, Marco/Khamsa is half-Romani, half-Algerian. Most of the main characters are his Romani relatives, who live together in a camp in the city.
2008 Filth and Wisdom UK
Ukraine
Ukrainian Rom lives in London
2008 Stone of Destiny UK Scottish nationalists bury the Stone of Scone in a field. They return to find a Romanichal camp, and one barters with the Romany leader for the stone.
2006 Children of Men UK
US
Features a gypsy woman called Marichka in the refugee camp. At one point when she is trying to help the mother and baby escape, Marichka and the woman engage in a tug of war with the baby, recalling the stereotype of gypsies stealing babies. Based on the P.D. James novel.
2006 Transylvania France Italian girl pursues a gypsy violinist across Europe.
2006 The Indian and the Nurse Czech Republic Romani nurse and non-Rom in love.
2005 Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa Japan Romani character Noa is pursued by Nazis.
2003 Japigia Gagi Roma Stories Italy documentary by Giovanni Princigalli who lived one year in an illegal camp of Roms of Romania emigrated in Italy
2003 Holes US Romani friend.
2002 Swing France
Japan
Max becomes friends with Swing, a boyish Romani girl, who shows him nature and takes him to exuberant music evenings.
2001 Gypsy Woman UK Starring Jack Davenport and Neve McIntosh.
2000 Chocolat UK
France
Johnny Depp plays Rom love interest of mysterious chocolatier Juliette Binoche.
2000 The Man Who Cried UK
France
Johnny Depp portrays Rom in France.
2000 Geppetto US TV Remake.
1998 Train de Vie France et al A group of fleeing Jews meet up with a large group of Roma.
1998 Black Cat, White Cat Serbia Romani central characters.
1998 The Red Violin Canada The Romani takes the red violin across Europe from Vienna to Oxford over a century.
1997 Gadjo dilo France French lives with Romanies in Romania.
1997 The Hunchback New Zealand TV adaptation.
1996 Thinner US Man cursed by Romanies after killing one.
1996 The Hunchback of Notre Dame US Animated adaptation.
1995 Haunted UK Starring Aidan Quinn and Kate Beckinsale, an old Romanichal fortune reads the palms of two characters.
1993 Latcho Drom France The journey of the Romani people told through musicians and dancers of India, Egypt, Turkey, Romania, Hungry, Slovakia, France and Spain.
1992 Bram Stoker's Dracula US Dracula's henchmen are gypsies.
1988 Time of the Gypsies Yugoslavia Telekinetic Romani in realistic community at home, and in Italy.
1988 The Raggedy Rawney UK Starring Dexter Fletcher and Zoë Wanamaker, about a young soldier who falls in with a gypsy camp.
1986 Tras el cristal Spain Dir.: Agustí Villaronga.
1983 Angelo My Love US All-Romani cast; dir.: Robert Duvall.
1982 Corre, gitano Spain Romanies from Granada and Seville.
1982 The Hunchback of Notre Dame UK
US
TV adaptation.
1979 Tsygan USSR Romani's child was adopted by a Russian woman; after 17 years, a single old Romani man appears in the village and gains the respect and love of the boy, disturbing the peace of the family (Цыган).
1978 King of the Gypsies US Gypsies in New York City come into conflict with modernity as they use ancient traditions to select their new king. Starring: Judd Hirsch, Eric Roberts, Susan Sarandon, and Brooke Shields.[19]
1977 Count Dracula UK Dracula's henchmen are gypsies.
1977 The Hunchback of Notre Dame UK TV adaptation.
1976 Rosy Dreams Czechoslovakia Romani and non-Romani lovers, societies.
1975 Tabor ukhodit v Nebo USSR Free-spirited Gypsy central characters; US title: Queen of the Gypsies. Loosely based on short stories ("Makar Chudra" and "Old Izergil") by Maxim Gorky.
1970 Count Dracula Spain
Italy
Germany
UK
Dracula's henchmen are gypsies.
1967 I Even Met Happy Gypsies Yugoslavia Realistic Romani central characters.
1966 Sky West and Crooked UK Inspired by the novel The Gypsy and the Gentleman by D. H. Lawrence. A young girl played by Hayley Mills finds happiness and friendship with a young English Romany played by Ian McShane.
1963 From Russia with Love UK James Bond in Gypsy camp in Turkey.
1961 Babes in Toyland US Musical.
1958 Touch of Evil US Romani fortune-teller.
1956 The Hunchback of Notre Dame France
Italy
Sound adaptation.
1955 The Adventures of Quentin Durward UK
US
French gypsies.
1951 My Favourite Spy US Comedy.
1950 Gone to Earth UK Romani love interest.
1949 Black Magic US
Italy
Romani character Balsamo in France.
1949 The Queen of Spades UK Russian gypsies.
1948 The Loves of Carmen US Rita Hayworth is Carmen.
1948 Secret Beyond the Door US Mexican gypsies.
1947 Golden Earrings US Marlene Dietrich is Hungarian Gypsy in Germany
1946 Caravan UK American marries Gypsy in Spain.
1944 House of Frankenstein US Romani love interest.
1944 Cry of the Werewolf US Romani werewolves.
1944 Gypsy Wildcat US Romani love interest.
1943 For Whom the Bell Tolls US Romani character Rafael in Spain.
1943 Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man US Romani fortune-teller.
1941 The Wolf Man US Romani fortune-teller.
1940 Pinocchio US Romani villain - Stromboli.
1939 The Hunchback of Notre Dame US Sound adaptation.
1937 Heidi US German gypsies.
1936 The Bohemian Girl US Comedy.
1935 The Bride of Frankenstein US The Monster tries to get some food from gypsies.
1934 The Little Minister US The heroine poses as a romani.
1927 The Unknown US Romani love interest.
1923 The Hunchback of Notre Dame US Romani woman Esmeralda helps the Hunchback.
1915 Carmen US Geraldine Farrar is Carmen.
1913 The Student of Prague German Empire Romani love interest.

See also

References

  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. ProQuest. p. 65. ISBN 978-0549452898.
  3. ^ MacKay, edited by Marina (2009). The Cambridge companion to the literature of World War II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 35. ISBN 978-0521887557. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  4. ^ (eds), Paola Pugliatti & Alessandro Serpieri (2008). English Renaissance scenes: from canon to margins (1. Aufl. ed.). Bern: Peter Lang. pp. 293–295. ISBN 978-3039110797. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  5. ^ Button, edited by Marilyn Demarest; Reed, Toni (1999). The foreign woman in British literature: exotics, aliens, and outsiders (1. publ. ed.). Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. pp. 152–155. ISBN 978-0313309281. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  6. ^ Segal, [edited by] Vasiliie Demos, Marcia Texler (1994). Ethnic women: a multiple status reality. Dix Hills, N.Y.: General Hall. p. 52. ISBN 978-1882289233. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  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, edited by Jan Harold (1998). American folklore: an encyclopedia. New York: Routledge. p. 743. ISBN 978-0815333500. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  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. ^ "#34: Thief of Budapest". The MacGyver Project. 16 February 2015.
  18. ^ Sumner, Don (2010). Horror Movie Freak. Krause Publications. p. 89. ISBN 978-1-4402-0824-9.
  19. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 17 June 2011. Retrieved 16 September 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)