The Spanish Gypsy

Curatorial Note

Lou Charnon-Deutsch’s "The Spanish Gypsy: The history of a European obsession" examines the historical construction of the “Spanish Gypsy” as a powerful figure in the European cultural imagination. Tracing representations from the medieval period through modernity, the study explores how Spanish Roma were repeatedly romanticized, exoticized, feared, and transformed into symbols of freedom, passion, marginality, and unconventionality. Drawing on literary, historical, and visual sources, the book is particularly valuable for diachronic research on the representation of Roma and the formation of enduring stereotypes, while distinguishing these cultural constructions from the lived histories of Romani communities in Spain and Europe.