The Relationship Between Literature and Roma Policy

Jennings 1

Lauren Jennings

Focus on the Roma

Dr. Ilona Klimova-Alexander

April 19, 2005

The Relationship between Literature and Roma Policy

“Sources that speak about Gypsies are never very trustworthy.”

-Teresa de San Roman,La diferencia inguietante, xvii

“Who are the Roma?” It is a question that has been asked hundreds of times and has been answered in thousands of ways. The academics who study Roma have pieced together a hazy picture of Roma identity, cautiously stating it has something to do with their common origins and culture. And even this vague definition is still being disputed. Unlike those people who specialize in Romani studies, the everyday person does not have time to argue over the identity of the Roma. Instead they build their conception from the images of Roma that they receive from society, the media, and literature.

Literature has been a powerful force in constructing false ideas about who the Roma are. This became especially problematic during the Victorian Era, when society was a prison that restricted sexuality, moral deviance, and freedom. As a group on the margins of society, the Roma were believed to be beyond such constraints, and thus came to stand for the antithesis of Victorian culture – unrestrained passion, disregard for rules, freedom, and movement (Constantakis 1). And ever since, these stereotypes have haunted the Roma. These prejudices have played a key role in defining the direction of policies towards the Roma. Because literature has helped create the image of the “gypsy” as being unrestrained sexually, morally, and in terms of movement, it has helped to encourage policies that attempt to control these aspects of Romani life.

Perhaps before discussing the problems with the content of books, it is important to start with the problems created for Roma by the fact that information about them is transmitted in print. In his book, We Are the Romani, Ian Hancock points out that Romani culture is primarily on oral and not a written cultural. Therefore “books and articles about Romanies number in the tens of thousands, but practically every single one of them was written by an outsider and most of those by people who have never met any Romanies in their lives,” (Hancock 161). The problem with literature is that it is not a medium for relaying information that the Romani use, and therefore has been abused by some non-Romani people. Plus, if the Roma are not writing books, they are also not reading them, even if this has more to do with a language barrier. Thus they are not able to challenge misconceptions about them that appear in print, because they are unaware that they exist (61).

Although the fact that information about Roma appears in print does lead to discrimination, what is actually said about them is much more dangerous in the construction of harmful prejudices. One of the most common stereotypes of gypsies in literature is that they are extremely passionate and sexually uncontrolled. “The decades between 1910 and 1930 were marked by an explosion of writings on gypsies – anthropological studies, popular fiction, poetry, travel writing, folk tales, linguistic studies – that placed the gypsy at the center of commentaries on exoticism, …sexuality, and savagery” and turned them into symbols of “liberation, excitement, danger, and free expression of sexuality,” (Blair 1). This is a common theme in most works dealing with Roma and is almost always present in the female gypsy characters of the nineteenth century. One such example is Compton-Rickett’s Gypsy Blood. It is the story of Carlotta, a young gypsy woman who refused to marry the hero, Dirke, because she prefers to have an open sexual relationship with him. Carlotta is “repeatedly linked with elemental forces and sexuality,” a sexuality that is dangerous because it is not enacted within a marriage (4). This uncontrollable sexual force is also associated with male Roma. D. H. Lawrence’s novella, The Virgin and the Gypsy, hints at free sexuality in this story about learning to assert one’s will. The young woman in the story, Yvette, falls in love with the gypsy. “What she responds to in the gypsy is his ability to make her lose her will,” (Blair 14). Through sexual desire, Yvette first becomes aware of her will. Even the title of the story and its juxtaposition of “virgin” and “gypsy” suggests that these two words are incompatible and contributes to the assumption that Roma are sexually liberated people.

These ideas about Roma identity have become dangerous because of the way they are misused in creating Roma policy. Officials and researchers publicly claim that Roma “breed more prodigiously than ‘normal’ people …and dispatch the women to the tourist areas for the express purpose of prostitution,” (Powell 95). Therefore, it is no surprise that beginning in the 1970s and continuing until 1990, Romani women have been sterilized programmatically and pressured into abortions by the Czechoslovak government (Anca-Strauss 1). Despite the fact that it was declared “genocide” by Charter 77, “no Romani woman sterilized by the Czechoslovak authorities has ever received justice or even public recognition” for her injuries (1). Perhaps this is partially to be blamed on the stereotype that Roma do not control their sexuality. It certainly seems that Roma are denied the same reproductive rights as mainstream society, and this may stem from the prejudices rooted in literature.

Along with being portrayed as sexually unrestrained, the Roma are often portrayed as rule breakers. One of the most common stereotypes of Roma is that they are thieves, and this trait is often associated with gypsies in literature. Granted, it is more likely that this stereotype developed from personal experiences in which a person was robbed by someone who happened to be Roma or was mislabeled as Roma than that it developed through literature. But it can be said that literature has helped perpetuate this prejudice.

In one of his books on gypsies written during the 19th century, Lombroso defines the Roma as “the living example of a whole race of criminals” (Blair 14). And during the Middle Ages, the myths that sprung up about the origin of the Romani people usually assumed they had committed some sort of crime. “They were descendents of Ham, forever marked by the sins of Cain; they had denied succor to the Holy Family as it fled into Egypt and so were cursed to wander the world to atone for their refusal,” (Charnon-Deutsch 2). But the belief that Roma are inherently criminal isn’t an idea that has stayed in the past. InMiracle in Seville by James Michener, which was written in 1995, the same idea is a major part of the story. It is the tale of two women and who fight each other in a symbolic battle of good and evil. One is a compassionate Christian, the other an evil gypsy fortune-teller. And the male Roma in the story, Lazaro Lopez, is portrayed as a coward and a scoundrel who relies on shameful trickery (1). Thus literature as helped further the stereotype that Roma are inherently criminals.

Thus it is not surprising that the policies and practices directed at Roma assume that immorality is part of their nature. During the 19th century, England passed numerous acts aimed at the Roma such as the Poor Law and Vagrancy and Hawkers Acts. These laws basically assured that Roma could be persecuted as the “criminals they were” for such harmless things as lighting fires, damaging grass, or owning a dog without a license (Constanakis 2). During the 1920s in Czechoslovakia, Roma were required to carry ID cards with them. The only other people who faced such a requirement were convicted thieves (Powell 92). But this stereotype has not remained a thing of the past and it still has a bearing on how the Roma are treated. In an interview with in NGO executive, the executive admitted that the organization was distrustful of the Roma handling money, saying, “The Roma don’t like it when foundations give money for studies about them; they want to control the funds themselves but will mismanage it and use it for unintended purposes,” (Barany 262). Thus the long standing prejudice that is perpetuated in literature still has bearing today on the lives of the Romani, as stereotypes guide the policies and practices directed toward them.

Along with being unrestrained sexually and morally, Roma have also been portrayed in literature as having complete freedom. Their movement is unrestricted and their culture reflects this. Thus they are seen as the antithesis of the rigid restrictions of western society. In her book Pepita, Vita Sackville-West observes some gypsies dancing and remarks, “They were with exception the most beautiful human beings I ever wish to see…like wild things that never ought to have submitted to the coaxing of even the kindliest hand,” (Blair 5). By calling the Roma “wild things,” Sackville-West portrays the Roma as fleeting, intangible spirits from some other realm and creates a sense of otherness. Another writer of the period, Bercovici, portrays Roma in a similar manner. He describes one of his gypsy characters as having “locked himself out of the gates of modern civilization, and roams freely on the highways and byways of the world,” (Blair 6). But it is not only freedom of movement that is connected with Roma through literature. It is also freedom from conventional roles in society. In her poem, “An Afternoon Call,” Sylvia Townsend Warner describes a scene where a gypsy woman enters the home of the speaker.

“I bade her in. With glances keen

She eyed my well-found kitchen, scene

Of kind domestic arts;

Like one who curious and serene

Looks round on foreign parts” (13-14).

The poem emphasizes the fact that the Roma woman does not belong in the traditional female sphere. She is portrayed as being outside of normal society.

It is not surprising that there are also strong parallels between the prejudices buried in literature and the prejudices that come to the surface in the policies that affect the Roma.

“How can we explain the continuities in the Romani experience of discrimination and how can we explain the changes? Traditional theories of racism clearly have some value. At a sociological and social-psychological level for example, we must take account of the symbolic meanings the Roma have for the non-Gypsy population. Gypsies are stereotyped as unrestrained, rootless – indeed free. Romantic and romanticized tales of the roving life… fuel these sorts of beliefs,” (Powel 97).

These stereotypes do help create laws that discriminate against Roma. In 1927, Law 117 was passed which, like many laws that came before it, included strict measures for the registration of nomads (Guy 288). These sorts of laws were hidden attacks on the lifestyles of the Roma. In 1993, the Czech government came under attack from international bodies for its new citizenship law which required, “a 5-year record free of criminal convictions, permanent residence, and knowledge of the Czech language,” (Barany 270). These provisions made it extremely difficult for Roma to receive citizenship rights, even if their family had been on Czech lands for hundreds of years. It also played off the prejudice that Roma are criminals, which was mentioned earlier in this paper.

But these attacks on nomads were not meant to just hinder the Roma’s physical sense of freedom but also to undermine their freedom to create their own identity outside the roles expected in society. In 1958, the communist government launched a campaign to turn the Roma into model socialist citizens through forced assimilation. Socialist theory functioned on the equality of all and an equal share in the labor. Thus the stereotypical gypsy lifestyle, a lifestyle where one is free to do as they please, is threatening to the ideas under which the Czech government operated and policies were enacted to suppress that culture (Guy 290). But the Czech government was not the only government to combat this alternative lifestyle with legislation. “For nearly 50 years, from 1926-1972, Swiss authorities abducted hundreds of Romani children from their families and supplied them with new identities in order to provide them with ‘civilized’ upbringing,” (Barany 77). Thus the stereotype that Romani culture is undisciplined and free-spirited lead to the tearing apart of Romani families. It is clear that the images of Roma in literature do have very painful and powerful effects on the lives of the Roma.

In literature, the Roma have often been associated with ideas of unrestrained passion, disregard for rules, freedom, and movement. These ideas have become part of the mainstream misconception of Roma and have come to have a devastating effect on the policies and practices aimed at the Romani people. They have contributed to the rational for the Czechoslovak genocidal policy of forced sterilization. They have fed the ideas that have led to the humiliation of Roma as being identified as thieves. And they have been partially responsible for the separation of Romani families with the belief that the children would be better off in a more restricted lifestyle. Thus it would appear that literature has played a role in the problems that Roma endure. However, if literature can be shown to have such a powerful role in enforcing stereotypes, it also seems that responsible and truthful portrayal of Roma in literature, the media, and the arts could make great strides in ending the prejudices against Roma. Although artistic liberties cannot be denied, perhaps it is more important to protect the liberties of the Roma and to include, in literature, realistic presentations of who they are and the problems they face everyday.

Works Cited

Anca-Strauss, Andreea. “Challenging coercive sterilization of Romani Women in the Czech Republic.”

Barany, Zoltan (2002). The East European Gypsies. Regime Change, Marginality, and Ethnopolitics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 7: The International Dimension, pp. 241-281.

Blair, Kirstie. “Gypsies and lesbian desire: Vita Sackville-West, Violet Trefusis, and Virginia Woolf.

Charnon-Deutsch. “The Spanish Gypsy: The History of a European Obsession.”

Constantakis, Sara. “Gypsies in Nineteenth-Century England: A Love/Hate Relationship.”

Guy, Will (2001). “The Czech lands and Slovakia: another false down?” In Guy, ed. Between Past and Future: the Roma of Central and Eastern Europe. Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press. 285-332.

Hancock, Ian. We are the Romani People. Hatfield: University of Herdfordshire Press, 2002.

Powel, Chris (1997). “Razor blades amidst the velvet.” In: Action, Thomas (ed) (1997) Gypsy politics and Traveller identity. Hartfield: UHP, pp. 90-99.