Gypsies As "the Other"

The gypsy is a famous nationality. The gypsies are mysterious and romantic wanderers, who are not bound by secular morality and are not subject to legal sanctions. In the 19th century, the gypsy nationality attracted the attention of the western writers because of their different amorous feelings. As a result, the western writers created a series of memorable and classical gypsy images. However, in the literary works, the gypsy images are shaped according to the concept of "the other" whenever they are chosen as the leading roles or the supporting roles. In the other way, the gypsy image is a mirror of the westerners, by which the westerners can know themselves well. In this paper, we study the gypsy images in the 19th century literature, analyse the "otherness" of the gypsy images, as well as the narrative characteristics. The paper analyses the images mainly according to two theories:the post-colonialism and the imagologie.The first chapter explains the concept of "the other" and summarizes the otherness of the gypsy images in the literature in the 19th century:On one hand, the gypsy girls are created as angels or are demonized. On the other hand, the gypsy men and the whole gypsy ethnic group tend to be absent or serve as the background. In addition, in order to achieve their own purpose, the western writers always create the gypsy images with their subjective imaginations, which lead to a lot of differences between the gypsy images in the novels and in the reality. The most significant differences are the philosophy of purity and the consciousness of chastity.In the second chapter, gypsy images are interpreted from different perspective, including imagologie and post-colonialism theories. From the perspective of the imagologie, the western writers are always influenced by the social collective imagination about the gypsies in the process of writing. People form some rhetoric about this nationality before they take a better insight into it, the rhetoric about gypsies is often linked to some negative words such like "cheating". From the perspective of post-colonialism, there may be exist two kinds of attitudes towards the gypsies according to the local situation:one is negative, the other is positive. This paper argues that the phenomenon of two sorts of attitudes coexist in the literary works we study.The third chapter of this paper mainly analyzes the narrative characteristics of the shaping of gypsy images. The first point is the selective filtering and reshaping. Gypsy image in the literature is not a simple copy of reality. Writers create the images according to their own needs. What the readers read is a kind of processed and absent "Gypsy". The second point is the self-reflection in one-way scrutiny. In the communication between gypsy nationality and westerners, the former has been watched by the latter unilaterally. The third point can be seen as the silent others. The shaping of "the other" in the literature is always the result of the dialogue between two kinds of cultures, but this kind of dialogue is often unequal, gypsies images are silent.This paper argues the gypsy image in literature to be shaped as "the other". Readers who understand the gypsy nationality only by reading the literature may produce a misreading about this nationality. It is hoped that the analysis of this thesis can help people form a better understanding of the gypsy nationality.