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THE COMPAKATIST CANTE JONDO: GERMAN LITERARY GYPSIES AND THEORETICAL NOMADS Dorothy Figueira I.Introduction The German literary portrait of gypsies contrasts markedly with their depiction elsewhere in European arts and letters. Unlike the gypsy presence in the works of authors such as Cervantes and Lope de Vega, where they were associated with dance, music, love, freedom, and wisdom, German literary gypsies are repeatedly portrayed as vagabonds and criminals . Unlike dramatic representations of the gypsy in the Italian zingara (carnival) plays or the theater of Gil Vicente and Mateo Alemán, where the gypsy appeared as a beautiful and/or spiritual woman, German literary gypsies often represent all that is amoral, asocial, and lawless. There was little tendency in German literature to portray the gypsy with any psychological depth, as one finds in Antonio Machado and Lorca. In the context ofthe following discussion, the term "gypsy" designates a literary trope, distinct from historical Roma/Sinti populations. Certainly representing gypsy populations in a meaningful way was never considered an issue in German literature. Rather, the gypsy was a stock figure. One consistent role that emerged for the gypsy to play was that ofthe nomad. There are numerous references to the nomad in poststructuralist theory. It may, therefore, be of some value to study the gypsy in literature , specifically its unique depiction in German literary representation, in light of critical discussion on the nomad. It is not within the scope of this investigation to discuss the gypsy in other European traditions. Rather, we are examining the special case of German literary gypsies from the Baroque period to Romanticism. At issue is a fundamental concern of comparatism, namely the problem of the relationship between theory and literary praxis. Ideally, theory should shed light on literature , raising the hope that theoretical discussion of the nomad can elucidate the dark and unsettling depiction ofgypsies in German literature. On an even more fundamental level, theory and literature both possess their own "deep song" (cantejondo). The following discussion will try to shed light on the cantejondo that animates the German literature on the gypsy and representative theories of nomadology. II.Nomadology A number of theorists have contributed to the critical trend that is commonly known as nomadology. In Origines de l'Occident (Giraud-Bourra), nomadism is defined as a refusal to be domesticated and an openness to Vol. 27 (2003): 79 CANTEJONVO: QEKMAN QYPSIES ANV NOMAVS the world and its curiosities. The nomad appears in a state of spiritual becoming, as opposed to the material rootedness of the non-nomad. The nomad represents a dynamic and renewing force, the bearer if not of positive knowledge then of existential feeling. The sociologist Jean Duvignaud has analyzed nomadic existence from a psychological perspective. Nomadic desire is seen as pure, unsublimated , and direct in its realization. The nomad, not hampered by ideological constraints, possesses a spiritual fluidity. On a socio-economical level, the nomad does not share in the construction of the state nor does he even subscribe to the notion of the "nation." He does not contribute to a market economy, but exchanges goods through potlatch. In other words, Duvignaud idealizes the nomad, seeing him standing outside what this critic views as the vicious circle of production and consumption . On the intellectual level, the nomad is not bound by fixed concepts. Duvignaud positions the nomad as existing always outside of codes and unwilling to accept any discourse of closure. As such, the nomad constitutes a Utopian model for the future. The poet Kenneth White employs the term "intellectual nomadism" for a state of objectivity, where one seeks to enter into relationships with all varieties of individuals, and they become a cherished object of study and one's intellectual property. White claims to have borrowed this formula ofintellectual nomadism from Ralph Waldo Emerson, maintaining that he speaks of the intellectual nomad who traverses all latitudes, while being true to his own interior laws, like Kalmouk in relation to his Khan. White, taking the concept that he ascribes to Emerson as the point of departure for his study of the nomadic spirit, is especially interested in the relationship between exterior wandering and interior law. Perhaps the best known theory of the nomad...

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