The representations of the romani in José de Alencar's fiction and in the Nineteenth-century press: fascination and marginalization

Abstract

This paper investigates the ambiguous representations of Romani people in José de Alencar's production, focusing on the representations of this group in O Jesuíta (1875) and, above all, in the novel O Sertanejo (1875). These works inscribe in their plots the presence of other cultures and groups, besides those considered to form the Brazilian nation, which were present during the colonial period. The Romani appear in these works as a marginalized group whose representations are, on the one hand, shrouded in fascination, but on the other, laden with suspicions and reservations that make up an anti-Romani discourse. In effect, the way Romani people emerge in José de Alencar's universe — as mysterious and shrouded in a halo of suspicion — dialogues with images conveyed by the press of the time. The characteristics of this group are shared by the stereotypes disseminated and propagated in the pages of the 19th century Rio de Janeiro newspapers, which provide a frame of reference for typification. We propose studying the figure of the Romani in Alencar, starting from the reconstitution of a frame of reference fed both by the literary tradition and by the observed anti-Romani bias and its distant nuances disseminated in the press.