Paola Toninato

The University of Warwick · Department of Italian

The article analyses an alternative approach to Romani nomadism within the emerging field of Romani literature by comparing hetero-images of Romani nomadism with the Roma’s own accounts of mobility. It starts by discussing romantic literary images of nomadic ‘Gypsies’ and entrenched fictional views of Romani nomadism, and contrasts these with self-...

Travelling Roma have for centuries been portrayed by non-Roma (Gadźé) in idyllic or sharply negative images that have little connection with the social context of Romani nomadism. Romani authors have begun to resist and relativize such representations, thereby giving rise to an autochthonous written literature. This article analyzes texts in which...

The Roma (commonly known as “Gypsies”) have largely been depicted in writings and in popular culture as an illiterate group. However, as Romani Writing shows, the Roma have a deep understanding of literacy and its implications, and use writing for a range of different purposes. While some Romani writers adopt an “oral” use of the written medium, wh...

Travelling Roma have for centuries been portrayed by non-Roma (Gadźé) in idyllic or sharply negative images that have little connection with the social context of Romani nomadism. Romani authors have begun to resist and relativize such representations, thereby giving rise to an autochthonous written literature. This article analyzes texts in which...

So far, textual hetero-representations of the Romani people (usually called `Gypsies' by the non-Roma) have focused on their foreignness and alleged `non-conformity' to the dominant order. Such depictions, conflating history and myth, art and reality, promote the perception of an unbridgeable divide between the `primitive', `illiterate' Roma and th...