The Gypsy Woman ― Representations in Literature and Visual Culture

The exotic and dangerous stereotype of the Gypsy woman formed in nineteenth-century literature and visual culture remains alive today. These contemporary clichs about Gypsy culture - both negative and romanticised - have a long history. In The Gypsy Woman, Jodie Matthews analyses why the representation of female Gypsy figures in print, painting, television series such as Big Fat Gypsy Weddings and social media sites like Instagram matters so much. Some of these images have been so damaging that they require legal regulation, but Matthews claims that supposedly positive portrayals are just as detrimental by reiterating the same story about Gypsies that have been told since the nineteenth century. Her study makes this book a highly relevant resource for students, teachers and researchers working in literary, cultural, gender and Romani studies.

Jodie Matthews is a lecturer in English Literature at the University of Huddersfield. Her research focuses on the ways in which groups who travelled around Britain were represented in the past, particularly the nineteenth century, and the ways in which these stereotypes and prejudice persist. She is also an editorial co-ordinator for Identity Papers: A Journal of British and Irish Studies.