Genres and Topics in Contemporary Romani Literature and Roma Kids’ Publications
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Sofiya Zahova History of Romani literature with Multimedia on Romani kids’ publications With the support of the Culture programme of the European Union. This publication is produced by Studii Romani within capmUSCulturae rojectp funded with support from the European Commission. The book and the multimedia reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. © Sofiya Zahova, 2014 © Blagoy Zahov, cover design, 2014 © Paradigma, 2014 ISBN 978-954-326-229-8 Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................5 Romani literature in Europe from its birth until 1980s ...................................................................................................9 First written texts in Romani .....................................................................................10 Romani publications in Soviet Union, 1920-1930s ................................................13 Romani language and culture in the context of Yugoslav Roma policies ...........25 The other socialist states .............................................................................................32 Western European states ............................................................................................44 Internationalization of the Romani literature after 1990s ..............................................................................................................58 Cross-boder developments .........................................................................................59 Common Romani identity narratives ......................................................................65 Research on Romani literature ..................................................................................72 3 4 Genres and topics in contemporary Romani literature and Roma kids’ publications ..................................................................73 Educational materials .................................................................................................. 74 Traditional folklore, tales and stories .......................................................................85 Poetry ............................................................................................................................91 (Auto) biographies ........................................................................................................98 Translations in Romani ............................................................................................105 Conclusion .............................................................................................................110 Bibliography ..........................................................................................................112 Literature in Romani published in USSR in 20s and 30s of 20thc. ......................130 Publications in Romani language and by Roma authors from Serbia ...............142 Introduction It was only in the 20th century, when reading audiences. These are books Roma, after centuries of oral tradition, written in many different languages have started to write literature and and dialects of the Romani language, to publish. The Romani literature published in different countries under production has been growing various circumstances, but most of enormously in the decades after 1980s them reflecting the cultural roots and the Romani literature scene of the Romani communities and became truly international. Up until containing elements from the Romani now in the countries all over Europe ethnoculture. and Americas where Roma live have The aim of this publication is to appeared a number of publications provide a short historical overview varying from materials to support the of the Romani literature publications education of the Roma to original books in European context, stressing on by Roma authors with tales, poetry, the developments in different regions autobiographies, and short stories. and countries and the issues what The definition Romani literature in have influenced these developments. this book refers to the written works Romani literature texts as most published by authors who are Roma literature artefacts are not autonomous by origin and works that target Roma pieces. That is why this text tries to 5 6 draw tendencies in the development the XX c. with immergence of works in the Romani literature, bearing in by Roma authors in many European mind the context surrounding the countries. A third period starts in literature productions and the key 1980s, with raising the issue of Roma factors which impact them, instead children’s education and Romani of trying to comprehensively review culture by European institutions, the or provide account of all works and fall of the Iron Curtain and boom in authors, which is anyway impossible. the production of Romani literature in I find the most appropriate the the decades after 1989. And the fourth historical approach, because, as I try period from the end of 1990s and to reveal, the tendencies in Romani after 2000 when we may speak about literature development are interrelated internationalization of the Romani with the development in different literature scene and developments that historical periods and their political go far beyond the borders of national context. I propose periodization in country or a region. the development of Romani literature The second part of the book discusses into four periods. The first period the variety of genres, topics and subjects stars with the immergence of written that could be found in the Romani texts in Romani in the beginning of children literature and Romani the 20th c. and the interwar period literature for adults, but the literature in which the major phenomena is studies classification of genres is not the Soviet state-wide project for leading in our overview. The genre publications in Romani. The second classification is not an appropriate period refers to the second half of tool also because in Romani literature 7 there are not really clear boundaries Graz within its Rombase project and in a piece of literary work often (romani.uni-graz.at/rombase/) and the genres are blurred – folklore story Roma history and culture factsheets and authors narrative are merging, project co-funded by CoE (Romani- one book can be both autobiography, Project Graz/Michael Wogg). Several testimony and folklore, a picture issues of Etudes Tsiganes (9/1997; book/short story can at the same time 36/2008; 37/2009) were devoted to be autobiography, etc. And, at the end, Romani literature with proceedings every piece of written text in Romani from international scientific forums can be applied in education and used with articles devoted primarily as educational material for Romani to international developments. kids' classes. The number of research on Roma The development of Romani literature literature in Europe with the approach or of various authors and topics has of comparative literature studies has been also in the scope of research been also growing recently among and publications. So far the most scholars (Eder-Jordan 1993, 2000; comprehensive international study is Trevisan 2008; Toninato 2013). the book “The Literature of the Roma” The immergence of publications in published originally in German, with Romani and by Roma authors was also consequent translations, by Rajko discussed in historical texts focusing Djurić (Djurić 2002). Considerable on the history of the Roma in various research on famous Roma authors countries (Marushiakova/Popov 1997; was produced by the University of Achim 2004; Acković 1994) or in 8 general (Crowe 1995; Kenrick 1998). A materials to visualize the text and comprehensive review of publications popularize the written literature useful for Romani children education of the Roma. It is accompanied by was done by Peter Bakker and Hristo a CD with Multimdeia presenting Kyuchukov in an electronically books and materials for Romani kids published bibliography (Bakker/ produced across Europe. It presents Kyuchukov 2003). research work implemented by the The aim of the book is to make a short author as part of Studii Romani team historical overview of the development participating in campUSCulturae of Romani litarture with illustrative project. Romani literature in Europe from its birth until 1980s It was in the first half of the 20c. when usage in church service and education. Romani language started to be used In this context, it is no wonder that in print, but the idea for necessity of at the end of the 1868, in the course such publications could be dated back of a general discourse for national decades earlier. Throughout the 19 c. emancipation, were publicly raised in the region of South Eastern Europe demands by Roma themselves to have started a process of endeavours church services and education in their for national emancipation, e.g. own language. This year the Bulgarian formation of nation states for ethnic newspaper Makedonija published in communities living at that time on the Istanbul “A letter to the editor” signed territory of the Ottoman Empire and by an “Egyptian” (i.e. Gypsy). The led by their elites. In the Balkans the author of the letter was Ilia Naumchev endeavours for national emancipation from Prilep who used arguments to in this period were typically related plead for the right of the Gypsies as to struggles for independence of the an ancient people