Diplomarbeit Titel der Diplomarbeit For the Sake of Entertainment: The Representation of Irish Travellers in 'Big Fat Gypsy Weddings' Verfasserin Claudia Wührer angestrebter akademischer Grad Magistra der Philosophie (Mag. phil.) Wien, 2012 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt: A 307 Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt: Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie Betreuerin: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Elke Mader Imagine a world where symbolic forms created by one inhabitant are instantaneously available to all other inhabitants; a place where "knowing others” means only that others know us, and we know them, through the images we all create about ourselves and our world, as we see it, feel it, and choose to make it available to a massive communication network, slavering and hungry for images to fill the capacity of its coaxial cables. Imagine this place that is so different from the society within which we nourish our middle-class souls, in which symbolic forms are not the property of a "cultured," technological, or economic elite, but rather are ubiquitous and multiplying like a giant cancer (or, conversely, unfolding like a huge and magnificent orchid), and available for instant transmission to the entire world. Imagine a place where other cultures (in the anthropological sense) and culture (as digested at ladies' teas) are available to all; a place where almost anyone (some will be too young or too infirm, physically or mentally, ever to be involved) can produce verbal and visual images, where individuals or groups can edit, arrange, and rearrange the visualization of their outer and inner worlds, and a place where these movies, TVs, or "tellies" (a marvelous word coined from television, and connoting the verb "to tell" so subtly as almost to be overlooked) can be instantaneously available to anyone who chooses to look. What will the anthropologist, as the student of man and his cultures, do in this world? Imagine this place; for it is where we are at now. (Sol Worth, 1981) Table of contents Introduction........................................................................................................................................ 1 1 Fellow citizens – distinct identities: Irish Travellers as the cultural 'Other'.............................5 1.1 Locating the field: approaches of anthropological interest.......................................................8 1.2 The establishment of a Traveller image..................................................................................14 1.3 Regimes of representation: Travellers and popular culture.................................................... 18 1.3.1 Literature.........................................................................................................................19 1.3.2 Newspapers..................................................................................................................... 22 1.3.3 Films and TV Series........................................................................................................25 1.4 Voices of and for Travellers: a brief glimpse into advocacy work.........................................28 1.5 By way of conclusion............................................................................................................. 33 2 Representation and contestation brought together: methods of inquiry.................................35 2.1 Visual anthropology: the documentary image........................................................................ 35 2.2 Mass media: the negotiation of power....................................................................................39 2.3 The interpretation of film texts: data preparation and analysis...............................................41 2.4 Statement of grounds: strengths and weaknesses of the chosen methods..............................44 3 'Welcome to the Wonderful World of Big Fat Gypsy Weddings': an analysis.........................46 3.1 The revealing portrait of Gypsies: approaching the overall design........................................ 47 3.2 The performance of a task: making a documentary thrilling...................................................52 3.2.1 Dramaturgy..................................................................................................................... 53 3.2.2 Sensationalism................................................................................................................ 56 3.3 The root of the matter: conveying information ......................................................................63 3.3.1 Language.........................................................................................................................65 3.3.2 Between rhetoric and reality........................................................................................... 68 3.4 The very heart of the show: representing the 'Other'.............................................................. 74 3.4.1 A secretive community with an ancient twist..................................................................75 3.4.2 It's a man's world.............................................................................................................81 3.4.3 In the name of beauty......................................................................................................84 4 'A Big Fat Gypsy Protest': challenging (mis-) representation................................................... 88 4.1 Voices of dissent...................................................................................................................... 89 4.2 For the sake of entertainment: reinforcing ignorance..............................................................94 4.3 The production of images: a question of responsibility ..........................................................97 Conclusion....................................................................................................................................... 100 Appendix......................................................................................................................................... 105 Bibliography................................................................................................................................ 105 Internet References ......................................................................................................................111 Filmography.................................................................................................................................113 Abstract and Curriculum Vitae.....................................................................................................114 Introduction In an anthropology course at the National University of Ireland Maynooth a fellow student was apprising me of the documentary My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding when I told him that I was going to write my thesis about Irish Travellers. During my stay in Ireland and prior to this conversation, I had asked other Irish people about their fellow citizens. Being unaware of the degree of prejudice that exists towards the Traveller community in Ireland, I was rather struck by the invidious replies I received. Most of them advised me not to get in contact with any Travellers – for the sake of my own safety. People told me, that Travellers are a bunch of criminals who steal and fight at any given opportunity and who would – and I am quoting here word-for-word – 'even fuck their own children'. Some brought to my attention that it is unlikely Travellers would talk to me at all. Others considered that they would rather talk to me, as a foreigner, than to any Irish people, already pointing towards the often tense relationship between Travellers and members of the majority population1 and the ambivalent nature of interactions between two different communities2 in one, and rather small, nation state. (cf. Hayes 2006: 5) Either way, I would not understand them anyway because of the language they speak and the accent they have – more than once referring to Snatch in this context: Even if someone does not know who Irish Travellers are or how they speak, it is most likely that everyone knows Brad Pitt and the hugely successful movie by Guy Ritchie. However, at that point I had not decided yet what the guiding research question would be, and as these conversations left me slightly unfulfilled and with the awareness that the persons I had talked to were voicing a general sentiment that apparently exists in the wider public perception, I was hoping to get a more constructive-minded response from the fellow student mentioned above. It was either naïve to assume, that an anthropology student would think differently about Traveller culture or I was just unlucky. One way or another, what I got was a sigh accompanied by eye-rolling and after shaking his head in disbelief and querying why I would choose that subject matter, he told me to watch the new documentary about Travellers which Channel 4 has started to broadcast at that time. I did. And I was, once again, surprised. Furthermore reassured, that Grierson's definition of a documentary – a 'creative interpretation of actuality' – holds true, if not necessarily in its best sense. 1 Throughout this paper, the term 'majority population' or 'members of the majority population' will be used when referring to non-Travellers. While most commonly referred to as 'settled people' or the 'settled population' when set in contrast to Travellers, I find the former more appropriate given the fact that a lot