Arts, Languages and Literature

Tony Gatlif's 1997 film, Gadjo dilo, portraying the search of a young Frenchman, Stéphane, for an old Gypsy singer, Nora Luca, was heavily criticized by Roma activists for denigrating the image of the Roma through harmful stereotypes and misrepresentations. In this paper, I argue that a Lacanian understanding of the voice as objet a, as it has recently been developed through the work of Mladen Dolar, provides us with a radically different interpretation of the film. Through tracing the object of Stéphane's quest, the acousmatic voice of Nora Luca, I show how Gadjo dilo undermines the notion of authenticity and truth that supports the very idea of true images or unified cultural identities.

Rent control, which still can be found in many countries, is hampering construction of new housing and the maintenance of old housing units. Although the information about home-based economic activities is not so comprehensive, it is clear that a large number of households use their home for some form of economic activity. This activity is essential for many, especially the poor, and should therefore be encouraged. Thus, mixed residential and economic uses of housing should be accepted, and pilot projects carried out to find the prospects of establishing 'mixed-use areas' more generally. The economic multipliers and backward and forward linkages are particularly high for low-cost housing construction. And such construction uses little or no imported material. Thus, there is a good economic argument for the allocation of far more funds to this sector, particularly during a period of economic recession or depression, than is presently being done in most countries in the developing world.

Representations of the Roma are ubiquitous in the history of Balkan cinema. These films have tended to be by non-Roma directors, with the Roma as the object of representation. Consequently, the critical reception of the films has focused on the issue of verisimilitude. In recent scholarship critics have utilized the psychoanalytic concept of "projective identification" to account for the persistent interest in Gypsy culture and life. In this paper I draw on an alternative tradition of Lacanian psychoanalysis to argue that Tony Gatlif's Gadjo dilo, rather than presenting an authentic picture of Roma culture, foregrounds the impossibility of representation ever truthfully capturing the object. Deploying the Lacanian concepts of das Ding and "The Woman does not exist," the paper demonstrates how Gatlif problematises the very notion of the Roma as a homogenized culture and identity.