William Wright - "You are a gypsy then?" Romani Representation in Victorian Periodicals
WilliamBeWright
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Within the context of an ever expanding empire, those living during the Victorian era contained a natural curiosity for exploration, particularly an exploration of newly “discovered” cultures at once exotic and subversive to traditional English identity. Edward Said has long examined the treatment of foreign cultures by Western societies during this time period. It is no surprise then, that the Romani people (in all of its varying iterations generally lumped under the term "gypsy") became a popular trope for Victorian readers, a trope that could be exotic, dangerous, mysterious, and, ultimately, exploited. By the time of the development of a magazine culture in Victorian England, the gypsy as trope was firmly established in the English imagination. Throughout the magazines of the Victorian era, the gypsy regularly makes an appearance, at times accurately portrayed in regards to the group’s ethnic and cultural origins and at other times as a figure of contempt and criminality or as figures of escapism and exoticism. Additionally, through the misguided portrayals of gypsies and the Romani's lack of access to cultural hegemony, the Romani people perfectly fit the concept of the subaltern.
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The Romani People: an introduction
The origin of the Romani people has been speculated throughout the centuries, most notably at the time of their arrival in Europe, but even before during their travels through the Middle East. Scholars, past and present, have put forth varying theories to satisfy the question of origin with varying results. What is agreed upon is that the Romani, based on their physical characteristics and linguistic features, have roots in the Indian subcontinent, perhaps beginning their migration as early as the 4th Century.
Mistrust of the Romani emerged early, a fact that can be seen, as Lou Charnon-Duetsch argues, through the various names received by the Romani in different countries upon their arrival in Europe: many of the names are some derivation of "Egyptian." For instance, in Spain they are "gitanos," in various Eastern Europeans nations they become something akin to "cigany," and in the English speaking world they are "gypsies." This connection to Egypt and Egyptians through something as important as an appellation speaks greatly to the deep-seated feelings of Europeans to Egyptians: |
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The English Gypsy
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The eminent Samuel Johnson may have provided the first meaningful mention of the Romani in the English language by including them (under the name gypsies) in his A Dictionary of the English Language (definition seen left). Interestingly, his definition uses the same language that Charnon-Deutsch points to as occurring in the Biblical animosity towards Egyptians, specifically Ezekiel 30:26.
And, as David Mayall shows in his study Gypsy-Travellers in Nineteenth-Century Society, the English were quick to implement policies limiting the legal and social rights of the Romani people in England. Mayall lists legislation passed over four centuries that, in one way or another, curtailed the rights of gypsies. The first of these comes in 1530 and prevents the immigration of "Egipcions" to England. The most significant laws, "Justices Commitment Act of 1743" and the "Vagrancy Acts" of 1822 and 1824, came later. The latter of these reads as such: |
George Borrow, born in 1803, came to prominence in England through his writings on Gypsy life, particularly with Lavengro and its sequel The Romany Rye. Both works detail his time living with Romani tribes in England and elsewhere in Europe. A modern biographer of Borrow, Robert R. Meyers, characterizes the author as a man of much "interest, as a linguist, in the odd language of the gypsies and of his curiosity about their customs and traditions... He liked their free mode of life, their healthy journeyings upon the windy heath, their powerfully loyal clannishness. He knew that they were often cheats, liars, and thieves; but they fascinated him no less."@Robert R. Meyers. George Borrow. London, Thwayne Publishing: 1966. 75.
At the same time, the Nineteenth Century saw a great rise in social sciences. With Darwin's On the Origin of Species and the work of James Cowels Prichard, an early ethnographer or, as is more common now, anthropologist, both appearing in the nineteenth century, the nature of the human race became a prime topic of study. George W. Stocking, Jr's study of Victorian anthropology shows that much of these studies of the social sciences were focused in a such a way as to establish a Biblical narrative, based in rational science, for the human race and that race's dispersal across the planet and differences in both appearance and culture.@George W. Stocking, Jr. Victorian Anthropology. New York: The Free Press, 1987. 49. For the Romani, this often meant a relegation to the same status as many other non-white races of Europe, races that, as alluded to earlier, were not descended from the twelve tribes of Israel and thus greatly suspect as to their moral abilities.
The combination of these two events of the Nineteenth Century, a general interest in social science and the establishment of a corpus of literature concerning gypsies, caused the appearance of gypsies in literature, fiction and otherwise, to greatly increase. Particularly in the realm of serial fiction, with each serials' constant expanding litany of characters with a new issue coming out weekly or monthly, the gypsy found a home as a trope and a reoccurring, non-white entity.
William Wright - "You are a gypsy then?" Romani Representation in Victorian Periodicals
WilliamBeWright
The Romani as an Object of Study
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:
William Wright - "You are a gypsy then?" Romani Representation in Victorian Periodicals
WilliamBeWright
"You are a gypsy then?" Post-Colonialism, The Romani, and Victorian Serials
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Published anonymously and monthly in The Cornhill Magazine from January 1873 to January 1874, "Zelda's Fortune" has the hallmarks of a Victorian serial: suspense, romance, secrets, and murder. "Zelda's Fortune" concerns a sunken ship, a chest of gold, a Doctor Vaughan, the sickly Claudia Brandt, a famous singer, and, most importantly, the young Romani girl, Zelda. The plot, as can be expected from a Victorian serial, is convoluted and complicated, so, because of this convolution and for the sake of not revealing too many spoilers, the plot won't be heavily delineated. Additionally, because the serial consists of thirteen separate issues, there are a plethora of instances in which the portrayal of Romani characters could be productively analyzed, for the sake of brevity, two specific instances will be examined.
The first instance also marks the first appearance of a Romani character in the serial:
In conjunction with a dulled sense of morality and an inability to perform meaningful work comes a suspicion on the part of the English that a change in lifestyle or, said more accuratly, an assimilation into the English way of life would allow the Romani a greater deal of happiness and fulfillment. Two instances of this are easily gleaned from a reading of "Zelda's Fortune." The first comes when the author of the serial directly addresses his audience, wanting the audience to consider how the Romani people keep from being bored from day to day: "Did it ever occur to, Reader, to speculate as to how those creatures who, having no acquaintance with books, newspapers dress, household management, business, or pleasure... manage to keep awake when left alone?"@"Zelda's Fortune." The Cornhill Magazine. March, 1873. 372. Later, once Zelda has been helped along to critical acclaim as a stage actress, we're shown her newfound contentedness:
"She [Zelda] was fairly content because she now had plenty to eat and drink, a roof to shelter her, freedom from tramping under burdens, and the clothes of a fine lady. in short, she was content as the house-lamb is, and realised her situation scarcely more."@"Zelda's Fortune." The Cornhill Magazine. April, 1873. 503. In short, a lack of meaningful cultural traditions, at least in the eyes of the English, can only cause severe boredom, but the assimilation to an English way of life (including changing one of the most quickly recognizable traits of the Romani: clothing) immediately brings the Romani up from a life of moral depravity, starvation, and hardship.
In her study of Romani portrayal in English fiction and their ultimate "abjection," Abby Bardi (focusing mainly on works from the Twentieth Century) characterizes the English author's portrayal of Romani culture as "stereotypes that inform [the literary Gypsy figure] and which it in turn perpetuates have often... had tragic consequences. The abjection... [of the gypsy] appears to have fueled centuries of legislation designed to repress, control, and even extinguish the Romani community."@Abby Bardi, "The Gypsy as Trope in Victorian and Modern British Literature," Romani Studies.16.1, 2006. 41. And while this analysis is astute and entirely correct in summarizing the treatment of the Romani as exemplified by the above passages, recasting it in new language extends the understanding of the Romani existence in Victorian England and, indeed, most times and places of their dwelling. Looking beyond the voice of the English, the voice that is heard through their writings on and about the Romani, and instead looking to the voice of the Romani people themselves deepens our understanding of Romani representation. Especially when it is realized that the Romani, in terms of Victorian England, are almost entirely voiceless. Through a lack of access to the cultural hegemony that is created and dominated by the English, the Romani become the quintessential subaltern. This subaltern is said to be "silenced" due to an inability to inform this hegemony and the only alternatives offered by the English (whether it be to the Romani or any of the colonized peoples of the empire) are the aforementioned destruction of a group, extinction in Bardi's language, or, as shown in the third passage from "Zelda's Fortune," through assimilation into an English/Victorian lifestyle which, in terms of culture, amounts to the same thing.
In this way, the portrayal of Romani within the serial fiction of Victorian England amounts to an unexplored form of Orientalism, of cultural imperialism that controls the group not only from a legal perspective, but from are presentational perspective as well. The Romani are thus exploited for their exoticism, their distinct un-English nature, an exoticism that also relegates them to a position of moral inferiority where their character and motives are always suspect and savage.
The Conclusion of "Zelda's Fortune" and the Implications Involved
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As it turns out, Zelda is only half-Romani. Only part of her blood is what makes her dark skinned and prone to non-English ways. And, in the final serial of the story, Zelda dies, the victim of a rather vague plot of poison. Her death, in terms of the narrative established by the author of "Zelda's Fortune," is necessary. It allows Doctor Vaughn, the on and off again love of Zelda, to take his place as a proper Englishman, husband of a white, Englishwoman rather than pursuing the improper Gypsy, Zelda. Zelda's death and her "sleep in Mother Earth's sweet cradle"@"Zelda's Fortune." The Cornhill Magazine. January, 1874. 125. allows for the remaining characters of the story to live the rest of their lives without the wild influence that the Romani bring with them. In this way, Harold Vaughn and Claudia (it's hinted that this sickly English woman will soon become his wife after the conclusion of the story) are able to pursue the Victorian lifestyle that cannot abide the influence of a dark-skinned foreigner.
The tale that centers, and names itself, after a Romani character can only end with the death of that very same character. Her death is the only way for the author to exploit the lifestyle of the Romani people, with all of its charms and exoticism, while still allowing for the actual English characters to remain truly English and therefore civilized. |
William Wright - "You are a gypsy then?" Romani Representation in Victorian Periodicals
WilliamBeWright
Conclusion: Implications of Portrayal and Modern Romani
In modern times, beyond the realm of English literature, the Romani people face various forms of representation, positive and negative, through varying mediums. At times, they are still relegated to the part of the subaltern, where their representation is performed by an author or artist that is non-Romani. This can be seen in the characters of the "Gyptians" in Philip Pullman's series of fantasy novels His Dark Materials. The Romani have also found their way into the realm of reality television with shows like My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding tending to portray the more extravagant elements of the Romani and their cultural traditions. On the other end of the spectrum, Romani have been able to create and access their own avenues of hegemony. Bands like Gogol Bordello, founded by a half Romani Ukrainian, blend traditional Romani styles of music with modern forms of punk and rock and roll. In this way, the Romani subaltern is finally allowed to speak for itself and choose how to be represented. An example of traditional Romani music can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2QVUo7QOmU An example of modern Romani music played by the band Gogol Bordello can be found here for comparison's sake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mXYWwQRGcY
Throughout their time in Europe, the Romani have been subjected to varying forms of oppression from the restrictive, such as the laws mentioned earlier, to the mostly harmless, such as the misrepresentation that occurred in the Victorian era, to the devastating such as the Porajmos of World War II. However, with a larger amount of global consciousness and more organization amongst Romani tribes, the Romani people are able to successful access their own cultural traditions and control their portrayal. |
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William Wright - "You are a gypsy then?" Romani Representation in Victorian Periodicals
WilliamBeWright
Endnotes
1 By AdiJapan (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
2 Nikolai Yaroshenko [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
3 Lou Charnon-Deutsch. The Spanish Gypsy: The History of a European Obsession. University Park, PA, University of Pennsylvania Press: 2004. 5.
4 David Mayall. Gypsy-Travellers in Nineteenth-Century Society. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 1988. 190
5 Robert R. Meyers. George Borrow. London, Thwayne Publishing: 1966. 75.
6 George W. Stocking, Jr. Victorian Anthropology. New York: The Free Press, 1987. 49.
7 "Metropolitan Gipsyries." All the Year Round. Oct 26, 1878. 391.
8 Ibid.
9 Fitzgerald, SJ Adair. "Hungarian Gipsies: Their Customs and Music." Belgravia. Nov, 1892. 315.
10 Edward Said. Orientalism. New York, Vintage Books: 1978. 73.
11 Said, 95.
12 "Zelda's Fortune." The Cornhill Magazine. Jan, 1873. 125.
13 "Zelda's Fortune." The Cornhill Magazine. March, 1873. 372.
14 "Zelda's Fortune." The Cornhill Magazine. April, 1873. 503.
15 Abby Bardi, "The Gypsy as Trope in Victorian and Modern British Literature," Romani Studies.16.1, 2006. 41.
16 "Zelda's Fortune." The Cornhill Magazine. January, 1874. 125.
17 By Greg Younger [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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