Roma as a Matrix of the ‘Other’in the Projection of Orientalism, Race, and Nation in the Works by Olha Kobylianska

Abstract

The paper analyzes the images of Romani in the works by Olha Kobylianska against the background of the multiethnic situation in Bukovyna, and traces the influence of the anthropological interpretation of the Gypsies as a race and a pre-modern people on the representation of Romani in the literature of the Romanticism period and the 2nd half of the 19th century.
 Kobylianska treats the Gypsies not only as an exotic ‘other’ but also as an integral part of the cultural and ethnic identity of Ukrainian society and analyzes the relationship between Romani as monads and settled peasants, as well as the processes of assimilation and integration of Gypsies into the Ukrainian environment. By depicting the colourful images of the Roma in her works, Kobylianska unfolds conflict situations related to the struggle for land and the participation of ‘outsiders’ in them. The Gypsy is a figure of the stranger who serves as a matrix of ‘otherness’ for her and functions in various semantic projections. Such a matrix is projected onto the life of Hutsuls as children of nature; it correlates with the situation of reversed gender, in particular feminine identity; it serves as an attribute of exotic and oriental racial otherness. Adopting romantic oriental stereotypes about Gypsies, Kobylianska, in accordance with the anthropology of the time, marks them racially (through the signification of the ‘black’ body) and geographically (through their belonging to the Oriental world). At the same time, she brings these images closer to Ukrainian life and everyday routine and doesn’t ignore the assimilation and relations between Ukrainians and Gypsies. Settled and nomadic peoples, insiders and outsiders become the backdrop against which Kobylianska unfolds the drama of shaping the modern Ukrainian nation.