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William Wright - "You are a gypsy then?" Romani Representation in Victorian Periodicals

WilliamBeWright

The Romani as an Object of Study

    A random sampling of Victorian magazines will show that the occurrence of gypsies is common, especially when it comes to fiction. As flat characters, they are easy to insert into a story for the purpose of introducing a hint of exoticism or criminality. However, it is often representations of the Romani found outside of fiction that do more to illustrate the Victorian's opinion of the race. For instance, the October 26, 1878 issue of All the Year Round contains an article titled "Metropolitan Gipsyries." The author of the article (anonymous) informs the reader of various "gipsyries" (the author's inexplicable name for Romani camps) that exist throughout the London countryside. The author gives a detailed account of the "dark-visaged tribes" as such:
The men are well-made and active, somewhat below the middle height, with dark complexions, bright eyes, and garments not remarkable for soundness or cleanliness. The women are wild-looking, often handsome, and have expressive eyes---expressive of mischief not unfrequently.@
The author goes on to describe how many of the gypsies occupying these "gipsyries" are of varying tribes that originate from disparate regions across Europe. Additionally, mixed in amongst those that are ethnically Romani are "the descendants of rogues and outcasts who roamed about England even before the gipsies were known in the land... [they are] ferocious, depraved, and repulsive."@ And while the portrayal of Romani here seems kind, almost benevolent, in lumping the Romani with these other gypsy-travelers (often from Scotland and Ireland) that the author seems to cast in sub-human language, the author perpetuates not only the exotic "other" nature of the Romani, but also relegates them to a place of negativity where they defy the proper, English way of existence. The Romani's refusal to adhere to and recognize the cultural practices imposed by the hegemony of the Victorian English relegates the whole race to a place not unlike those occupied by the indigenous peoples of the British colonies.
    Elsewhere, in the November, 1892 issue of Belgravia, an article by S.J. Adair Fitzgerald appears called "Hungarian Gipsies: their customs and music." As the title suggests and unlike All the Year Round, Fitzgerald shies away from the Romani of England and instead provides an ethnographic take on the Romani living in Eastern Europe, particularly the Roma of Hungary. Additionally, besides a brief reference to "a too lethargic temperament" possessed by the Romani, Fitzgerald provides a rather sympathetic view of the Romani and their attempts to subsist in Hungary especially when he points to legal and economic challenges that they face in that country, at least until his conclusion:
So these people live, caring nothing for the past and less for the future---a wandering tribe without aim or ambition, but to take life as it comes, without desire for the empty bubble of the hollow cities and towns. True children of Nature, they rest on her breast and are content with what she yields them. May they not be a lost tribe of a lost continent? May there not be something more than we can fathom in the wild rhythm of the still wilder music---the music that speaks with all the impetuosity of a suffering race, with all the fire and anguish of a crushed nature that longs to free itself and rise to the ethereal heights of a grander existence? Who knows? There are more things in earth than are dreamt of in a weak philosophy of man.@
These children, children of nature rather than of God, are unable to assimilate into the society of the English or, for that matter, any existence that will allow them "ethereal heights" rather than suffering. When compared to the English (as shown in the earlier article) they are only allowed to occupy the same space as the lowest classes of people. This reporting, these attempts at actual accounts of the Romani living in the midst of Victorian England do well to show the attitude of English society towards gypsies, their ability or unwillingness to integrate, and the general condition of the race.However, a stronger and more important analysis of these issues comes through the application of post-colonial thought to the portrayal of the Romani, particularly their portrayal in that most unique and popular form of Victorian literature: the serial. In the serial, a work of fiction, an English author is able to portray characters however he chooses. Especially in the racial other, the author's choices are telling of the general attitude towards particular race.