Abstract
This book aims to deconstruct the public perceptions of the “Gypsy” and reclaim Romani memories as European values, with a particular focus on Hungary. Taking an interdisciplinary approach that draws on history, memory studies, sociology, social psychology, anthropology, and ethnography, it critically scrutinizes intergenerational antigypsyist public perspectives and academic constructions that have shaped representations and identities of the “Gypsy” over the past centuries. The first part of the book examines not the Roma themselves but the perceptions and imaginaries that have constructed the “Gypsy” across the centuries, arguing that the “Gypsy” as such does not exist but is a social construction produced and sustained by non-Romani (“Gadzo”) discourses — both formal (academic, governmental, cultural, and religious) and informal. The second part traces three generations of Romani intellectuals in the latter half of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries, analyzing how they developed their intellectual and social class positions, set new paths toward emancipation, and reclaimed their standing in critical knowledge production, arts, culture, and political representation. Central to the analysis is the concept of resilience: despite centuries of oppression, social exclusion, and marginalization — including structurally biased antigypsyist educational practices that limit Roma children’s access to inclusive institutions — Romani people have achieved remarkable socioeconomic and academic progress through various forms of social resistance. Drawing on over 150 self-narratives and lived experiences of Roma intellectuals, as well as qualitative and quantitative comparative analysis spanning the 1920s to the 2020s, the book offers a manifesto for reclaiming Romani memories and dignity.
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