Female Romani Literatures: (re-)writing and empowerment

Panel organizers: Marina Ortrud M. Hertrampf, University of Passau (Germany); Lorely French, Pacific University (USA); Ileana D. Chirila, University of New Hampshire (USA); Oksana Marafioti, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (USA)

The history of written Romani literature is only about 100 years old, and thus Romani literatures are still being defined and consolidated. The special feature of this young literature is, on the one hand, that it is a multilingual diasporic world literature and, on the other hand, that female authors play a prominent role: Papusza (Bronisława Wajs), a Romani woman, was the first to take up the pen and establish Romani literature as written literature. It is conspicuously often female authors who achieve visibility with their texts on the national book markets. Some authors appear in their texts as committed feminists and/or human rights activists. For other authors, sexuality and gender play a less prominent role in their works. Additionally, women often also play a very central role in texts by male authors.

In our panel we therefore, on the one hand, want to deal with literary works by female authors. Papers will examine, for example, how the act of writing is frequently an act of self-empowerment and how literary writing can thus often be described as engaged literature. On the other hand, the panel will also look at the representation of female protagonists in works by male authors. Comparative analyses might ask how are Romani women represented in texts by male authors, and how in those by female authors? Are there differences? And if so, how are they to be evaluated? The aim of the panel is to sketch a broad picture of Romnya in the literature of Romani authors and to investigate whether significant gender differences exist.