Villains by Default: Somatization, Primitivization and Exoticization as Strategies of name-based anti-Roma discrimination in the Romanian Novel (1845-1947)

Abstract

Situated within a broader research project on name-based anti-Roma discrimination in literature, this study examines how names function discursively in constructing Roma characters as racialized others. It advocates for a social turn in literary onomastics and employs an integrated theoretical and methodological framework combining onomastic discourse analysis (ODA) with the discourse-historical approach (DHA). Specifically, the study analyzes names as instruments of othering through predicational strategies that perpetuate stereotypical and prejudicial representations of Roma characters. These strategies – somatization, primitivization, and exoticization – are examined through lexical markers while accounting for the connotative potential of literary names, drawing on Grant W. Smith’s typology of reference. The findings reveal that Romanian novels consistently construct Roma characters as villains by attributing onymoids (as defined by Richard Coates) that encode racialized physical traits, as well as through names evoking livresque and mythological references.