CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020
| Author | Demirov, Rufat |
|---|---|
| Title | The Power of Self-naming: Between Denial and Political Identity; The First World Romani Congress |
| Summary | The First World Romani Congress, 1971, fulfilled three main aims that Roma had in that time. Firstly, Roma became people with the ‘right to have rights’ (Hannah Arendt), and people with a meaningful voice. Secondly Roma resisted the position of a subordinate ‘other’ in the orientalist relation Roma – non-Roma (Edward Said). And finally, Roma took in their hands the power of naming themselves, and from a nameless population of bodies over which the states exercise violence (Michel Foucault), they became a political, meaningful group called ‘Roma’ (from Romanes ‘Rrom’ = Human). The argument that this thesis provides is that the First World Romani Congress succeeded in: 1) building a terrain for Roma to become people with a voice, and 2) taking the power of naming from the nation-states in the hands of Roma themselves. Furthermore, the main importance of the Congress I see in transforming the perception of Roma as a nameless population of bodies in a political and recognized group. During the discussions on the Congress one of the main speakers, Vanko Rouda, problematized the position of Roma as nameless and non-defined group saying “One difficulty is that Gajo official circles have not yet decided who or what we are.” (RaceToday1971,193). Rouda inspired my thesis which elaborates the dilemma of the reality of not being named was whether a problem or an opportunity for Roma to name themselves. |
| Supervisor | Nicutar, Andreea |
| Department | Romani Studies Ps |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2020/demirov_rufat.pdf |
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