DU2389 Exoticism within: Images of Roma and ‘Gypsies’ in Central European Art and Visual Culture

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2023
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
Julia Secklehner, M.Phil., Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Julia Secklehner, M.Phil., Ph.D.
Department of Art History – Faculty of Arts
Supplier department: Department of Art History – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Thu 8:00–9:40 L33
Prerequisites
There are no pre-requisites for this course
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
Course objectives
This course offers a a critical account of Roma and “Gypsy” stereotypes in the art and visual culture in Central Europe since the nineteenth century and examines these in light of current debates on whiteness and decolonisation. It examines the ways in which art both reflected and also shaped the image of the Roma in Central European society. The course not only considers "Gypsy" images but also introduces Romani cultural emancipation and explore contemporary art projects by Romani artists from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.
Learning outcomes
After completing the course successfully the student will be able to:

- identify and critically analyse images of Roma and “Gypsy” stereotypes in the art and visual culture in Central Europe since the nineteenth century

- demonstrate an understanding and knowledge of specific works of art and visual culture of this topic in the light of the themes addressed in the course

- demonstrate a critical historical knowledge of specific cultural, social and political factors leading to the material introduced in the course

- critically engage with the concepts, values and debates that inform the construction of these images
Syllabus
  • 23 February 2023
  • Introduction: Images of the Roma and "Gypsy" stereotypes and art history
  • Recommended reading:
  • Ian Hancock, 1997, The Struggle for the Control of Identity © Transitions Vol. 4, No. 4
  • http://theoldnet.com/get?decode=false&scripts=false×tamp=19991128033716&url=http://www.geocities.com/~patrin/identity.htm
  • Timea Junghaus, "Towards a New Art History. The Image of the Roma in Western Art", RomArchive.eu
  • https://www.romarchive.eu/en/visual-arts/roma-in-art-history/towards-a-new-art-history/
  • 2 March 2023
  • Who are the real Bohemians? Artists and cultural appropriation
  • Recommended reading:
  • Mike Sell. (2007). Bohemianism, the Cultural Turn of the Avantgarde, and Forgetting the Roma. TDR (1988-), 51(2), 41–59. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4492759
  • 9 March 2023
  • What does postcolonialism have to do with it? The "Gypsy" body and blackness
  • Recommended reading:
  • Kovács, Éva. (2021). Black Bodies, White Bodies – ‘Gypsy’ Images in Central Europe at the Turn of the Twentieth Century (1880–1920). Critical Romani Studies, 3(2), 72-93.
  • https://doi.org/10.29098/crs.v3i2.75
  • Victoria Shmidt and Bernadette Nadya Jaworsky (2021). "Introduction: a longue durée of segregation against Roma: inside of whiteness", in Victoria Shmidt and Bernadette Nadya Jaworsky eds. Historicizing Roma in Central Europe Between Critical Whiteness and Epistemic Injustice. Routledge. pp1-12.
  • 16 March 2023
  • "Gypsies" everywhere: stereotypes, photography and mass media
  • Recommended reading:
  • Jana Horváthová, Devleskere čhave: svedectvom starých pohľadníc. 1. vyd. Poprad: Vydavateľstvo Regionu Poprad, 2006, 121-149 (English part of book).
  • 23 March 2023
  • Returning a name: how to make individuals visible
  • Recommended lecture (online):
  • Lecture by Timea Junghaus: Towards a Horizontal Art History: Three Case Studies for Writing Roma Women Into The History of Art.
  • https://www.romarchive.eu/en/collection/lecture-by-timea-junghaus-towards-a-horizontal-art-history-three-case-studies-for-writing-roma-women-into-the-history-of-art/
  • 30 March 2023
  • Documents of Persecution: The Romani Genocide in Visual Culture
  • Recommended reading:
  • Asavei, M. A. (2020). “Call the witness”: Romani Holocaust related art in Austria and Marika Schmiedt’s will to memory. Memory Studies, 13(1), 107–123. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750698017741929
  • 6 April 2023
  • "The World of Roma through the Eyes of Míla Doleželová"
  • Recommended podcast:
  • Od křídou pomalovaných chodníků ke světovým galeriím. Osudové ženy: Míla Doleželová https://dvojka.rozhlas.cz/od-kridou-pomalovanych-chodniku-ke-svetovym-galeriim-osudove-zeny-mila-8784571
  • 20 April 2023
  • The struggle for control of Romani identity: Emancipation after 1945
  • Recommended reading:
  • Celia Donert (2017). The Rights of the Roma.The struggle for citizenship in postwar Czechoslovakia. Cambridge University press, pp 143–179.
  • 27 April 2023
  • Decades of inclusion? Roma artists and contemporary art
  • Recommended Reading:
  • Daniel Baker and Maria Hlavajova, eds (2013). We Roma: A Critical Reader in Contemporary Art (Foreword). BAK.
  • Tijen Tumali (2011). "The Politics of ”Roma Inclusion” at the 52nd Venice Art Biennale". Studia Politica. Romanian Political Science Review 4:701-712.
  • 4 May 2023
  • Visit to the Museum of Romani culture in Brno
  • 11 May 2023
  • Student presentations.
Teaching methods
Lectures, class discussions, seminar presentations, homework, reading
Assessment methods
A short presentation on a chosen case study.

A written essay of 7 - 10 A4 pages (based on 1800 characters per page).
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught only once.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2023, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2023/DU2389