Delia GrigoreView all posts

Holds a PhD in visual arts - ethnography-ethnology (2004), her doctorate being awarded by the Romanian Academy’s Institute of Ethnography and Folklore. President of the Association Rroma Center „Amare Rromentza”, she is working in the Roma movement for more than 30 years. She is a lecturer at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, teaching Rromani literature and culture and coordinating the Rromani Language and Literature Study Programme. She was, for a maximum number of mandates, a member of the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture’s Barvalipe Academy and a member of “Costache Negri” Writers Society - Romania. In 2023, she was the absolute winner of „Amico Rom” Creation International Contest, organized by „Them Romano” Association - Lanciano, Italy. In 2024, she won the prize for visual arts awarded by Instituto de Cultura Gitana from Spain. Author and co-author of many conferences, articles, studies and books regarding Rromani culture and literature.

The Rromany Ethnic Identity Reflected in the Rromano Folklore. Some Case Studies on Myths and Proverbs / Old Sayings

Delia Grigore
Abstract The article introduces the way in which the theme related, directly or indirectly, to the Rromany ethnic identity is addressed in Rromano folklore, a main manifestation of the Rromany collective memory, approaching, as case studies, some myths and proverbs or old sayings. In the analyzed pieces of Rromano folklore, the Rromany ethnic identity is viewed from a few angles, either from the ancestral customary layer of the traditional Rroma community, or from the confrontation with racism and with the consequences of a tragic history, to which the Rroma survived through the force of remaining Rroma at any risk or through the effort to try, obsessively, to live like everyone else, to integrate through assimilation, even if an unconscious one.

Keywords ethnic identity; Rromany collective memory; Rromano folklore; myths; proverbs; self-esteem; self-image; stigma; assimilation; nomadic; racism; stereotypes; solidarity; pride ... Citește mai mult