In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • Introductory words to the special issue by the guest editors
  • Sofiya Zahova (bio), Lorely French (bio), and Marina Ortrud M. Hertrampf (bio)

Romani literature has experienced remarkable developments during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. As of today, in almost all countries where Roma live, authors of Romani background have produced books and other publications in various languages, including Romani. In the decades since 1989 the number of books that authors of Romani background have produced has increased. Likewise, the usage of Romani in books, translations, and periodical publications written and produced by and for Roma has also risen. A correlation between the Romani political movement and Romani literary production has also evolved both nationally and internationally.

The remarkably expanding Romani literature scene has provoked a considerable interest among researchers, and increasing scholarship on Romani literature has assumed two distinct approaches. On the one hand, there are those studies that adopt a historical approach and are based on providing accounts of Romani literature production and authors' life paths, along with outlines of sociopolitical factors. The history and development of Romani literature has been examined in a global perspective and nationally (Djurić 2002; Zahova 2014) or in studies about Roma history in various countries (Marushiakova and Popov 1997: 121–3; Achim 2004; Acković 2014: 251–332) or historical periods (Roman et al. 2021). Several studies have focused on reviewing literature by Romani authors in a national or regional context(s), e.g.: Soviet Union (Русаков and Калинин 2006; Shapoval 2020); Hungary (Beck 2004; Crowe 1991); Kosovo (Courthiade 1985); Czechoslovakia (Hübschmannová 1991; Šebková 2003; Sadílková 2009); Macedonia (Kurth 2008); [End Page 127] Italy (Trevisan 2008), among others. Considerable research on famous Roma authors was also produced by the University of Graz within its Rombase project (http://rombase.uni-graz.at/) and within the purview of the Roma history-and-culture factsheets project co-funded by the Council of Europe (Romani-Project Graz/Michael Wogg). Studies that interpret Romani literary development while also considering their entanglement with the identity politics of the time have also provided a general historical overview of European Romani literature (Toninato 2014; Zahova 2014). In addition, studies focusing on the use of Romani language in publications (Matras 1999, 2002, 2005) and in Romani children's education (Bakker and Kyuchukov 2003; Bakker and Daval-Markussen 2013) have specifically reviewed Romani language literature production. The recently launched tri-lingual RomArchive includes literature as one of its ten sections, presenting selections from texts, biographical information on authors, and overviews of literature in regions and countries (romarchive.eu/en/).

On the other hand, there are those studies that adopt the methods of the field of literary theory and comparative literature and focus on theoretical definitions of Romani literature, case studies of authors, and interpretations of literary works. The amount of research on Romani literature in Europe taking the approach of comparative literature studies has been also growing (Hertrampf and Hagen 2020; Blandfort and Hertrampf 2011; Eder-Jordan 1993; Trevisan 2008; Toninato 2014). Recently, literary scholars have analysed Romani authors' works published in German, French, and Spanish (Blandfort 2015; Blandfort and Hertrampf 2011; French 2015; Hertrampf 2011, 2020a, 2020b), and Romani literature has also been interpreted in relation to Holocaust Studies (Blandfort 2013) or diaspora studies (Toninato 2014; Hertrampf 2017a; Grobbel 2015), as well as in the context of postcolonial theory (Kovacshazy 2009, 2011). Scholars have also investigated certain Romani literary works in relation to the sociopolitical situation and orality of Romani culture (Eder-Jordan 1993; Kurth 2008). The interrelation between orality and writing is an important factor that earlier publications had examined as well (Courthiade 1985; Hübschmannová 2006; Karpati 1989). Interpretations of works by certain Romani writers have also employed critical gender theory (Scheinostová 2010; French 2015; Tahirović-Sijerčić 2016). Romani literary pieces share features that go beyond the borders of any one country or region. These circumstances allow us to speak of Romani literature as a heterogeneous (thus referred to as "literatures" in the plural by some scholars) and multifaceted yet still collective phenomenon.

The current special issue presents these two distinctive streams in the study of Romani literature by a balance of articles that, on the one hand, embrace...

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