Patterns of Symbolic Violence

Drawing on a number of paradigmatic works of art, the book explores the motif of 'gypsy' child-theft and its visualisations. The analytical focus is on the colour coding of bodies in texts and images and their racialised/anti-gypsy uses. Offering a comprehensive survey of the motif's adaptations to different visual media, the author elaborates on its multiple layers of meaning and functions. The analysis starts with a critical review of Cervantes' tale La gitanilla, moving through seventeenth-century Dutch history painting to take a cursory look at nineteenth-century printed images, and end up with an annotated filmography of 49 cinematic works.

Autorentext
Radmila Mladenova ist Literatur- und Filmwissenschaftlerin und promoviert am Slavischen Institut in Heidelberg zum Thema The 'White' Mask and the 'Gypsy' Mask in Film. Sie studierte Anglistik und Amerikanistik an der Universität Sofia und schloss den Masterstudiengang Kultur im Prozess der Moderne an der Universität Mannheim ab. Ihre Forschungsinteressen liegen an der Schnittstelle von Rassismus und Kunst.