Gypsy Representations in American Literature and Film: A Study of Selected Works by Martin Cruz Smith, Thomas Pynchon, and Frank Pierson

Stereotypes have a significant influence on the way Romani or Gypsy characters are represented in literature, films, and the media in general. Most of the depicted stereotypes and conceptions reflect the preconceptions of the dominant culture in various parts of the world. In the United States, for example, where Gypsies do not live in large numbers, negative stereotypical images about of them may be false and inaccurate, but not as harsh or demeaning as they are in Europe and elsewhere in the world. Still, the American and the European depictions have a number of general points in common. For instance, the once prevalently romanticized and mystical literary and artistic representation of Gypsies in nineteenth-century Europe are discernible in the way they are portrayed in American literature and films. To some extent, various notions permeated the American representations of Romani people which originally emerged in European countries, particularly where they live as contrasted minority groups.MSc/MAAmerikanisztikaB