The Spanish Gypsy: The History of a European Obsession

The Spanish Gypsy: The History of a European Obsession. By Lou CharnonDeutsch. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2004. Pp. xii, 288. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $39.95 cloth.

Ever since Spanish Gypsies have been the subjects of literary works-starting as far back as Rojas' La Celestina and Cervantes' La gitanilla, there has been a recurrent paradoxical tension in their representation. Scholars such as Bernard Leblon (1982) or José Ortega (1990)-who is unexpectedly missing in the bibliography of the book under review-have previously shown that xenophobic attitudes do coexist with reactions of admiration and idealization in literature. Indeed, whether seen as belonging to a superior, pure and untouched race, or considered dirty, liars, and immoral members of an abject race, Gitanos have indubitably been the source of inspiration for a large body of European literary and artistic works since the fifteenth century. The study of this corpus is the object of Lou Charnon-Deutsch's synthetic and extremely well documented book about the history of a "European obsession." Literary works,...