This book is about the origin and development of the presentation of gypsies as narrative device in West-European children’s literature.
Author(s): Jean Kommers, Radboud University Nijmegen
Publisher: BRILL
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 368
Contents
Illustrations
A Book about Tales, Tales That Do Things
Introduction
1. Subject, Sources and Approach
2. Representation and Symbolism: An Analysis Referring to Dutch Narratives
1 Introduction
2 The Beginning: Some Translations
3 Stealing Children or Stealing Gypsies?
3.1 Crossing the Border
3.2 Who May Cross the Border?
3.3 The Border
3.4 Differences in Social Status and the ‘Intermediate Period’
3.5 The Character of the Intermediary
3.6 The Temptation
4 Why Are Gypsies in Juvenile Literature Thieves of Children?
5 Xenophobia and Compassion
6 Conclusion
3. Intermezzo: How an Enduring German Religious Tale Changed into a ‘Gypsy-Tale’
4. Gypsies in English Juvenile Literature
1 Introduction
2 Gypsies and “Englishness”
2.1 Introduction
3 Early Representations of Gypsies (1787–1849)
3.1 Tales from the Late Eighteenth Century
3.2 The Early Nineteenth Century: Illustrated Moral and Instructive Texts
3.3 The Early Nineteenth Century: Literary Tales
4 The Victorian Age
4.1 Some Approaches
4.2 Textual Gypsies as Presented in Victorian Children’s Literature
5 Conclusion
5. German Juvenile Gypsy-Literature
1 Introduction
2 Early Nineteenth-Century German Gypsy-Tales
3 Some Post-1860 Tales
4 Conclusion
6. French Juvenile Literature
1 Introduction
2 Some Pre-1860 Texts
3 After 1860
4 Conclusion
7. Concluding Observations
1 Some Initial Reflections
2 Some Thoughts on Contemporary Interpretation
3 Analysis and Evaluation/Interpretation of Texts (and Authors)
4 A Literary Approach: Some Recurrent Themes
5 The Literary Traditions
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Secondary Sources
Index
