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ABSTRACTS Lenuta Giukin (SUNY Oswego) The Dilemma of Cultural Encounters: Representations of Gypsies in French Television and Cinema Taking into consideration the rich documentary material existing in France on gypsies, this study attempts to compare the cultural images of this minority in the French media with the "fictional" images offered by such filmmakers as Emir Kusturica and Tony Gatlif. The social dialogue around a minority that seems to repeatedly engender the same stereotypes is even more problematic in a global context when political correctness often produces a split between the public and private dialogue. A close analysis of the French television's attempt to create a sympathetic image of the gypsies through various public programs and direct televised debates reveals, in too many and obvious ways, the failure in mediating the desired cultural encounter. The display of the "other," in this case the "gypsy" and his customs, habits, history or occupations, appears to maintain and propagate an aura of exoticism, singularity and marginality. The diverse portrayals of French or European gypsies maintain, on the one hand a certain mythic image (the free gypsy, the careless migrant, his unique relationship with nature, etc.) while on the other it offers a new glimpse of the appearance of "new myths" within the European gypsy minority.

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