Authors

Discussion

The paper analyzes the figure of Roma in Ukrainian literature of the 19th century.  As a literary figure, Roma has become a particularly popular character since the epoch of Romanticism, signifying social, ethno-national and racial marginality, nomadism and alienation.  In Taras Shevchenko's work, Roma is personified as a lonely, solitary individual and becomes a cultural symbol of the exiled poet's alienation.  Mykhailo Starytsky draws attention to the issue of ethno-national self-determination, comparing the nomadic character of the Gypsies with the Ukrainian peasant community and referring to the question of assimilation and race. In Olga Kobylanska, Roma images symbolize gender transgression and personify the instability of the hybrid character.  In general, the literary figure of Roma is attributed to an exotic and orientalized character, serving as the Other in the process of formation of social, national and gender identity in the epoch of modernization in Ukraine.