Romani Bildungsroman – On the Cultural Trauma of Coming-of-Age as Presented in the Novels - City of Pain and City of Sin by Meti Kamberi

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the articulation of cultural trauma of coming-of-age as depicted in the novels City of Pain and City of Sin by the young Romani author Meti Kamberi. The common feature of these two novels is that they both explore the traumatic childhood and coming –of-age experiences through the main protagonist’s point of view, suggesting that they either belong to the genres of autobiography and bildungsroman. Both novels are examined from the ethnic/minority bildungsroman perspective, with a particular focus on the personal experience narrative of coming-of-age of a Romani minority member in post-socialist Serbia as described in either of the two. Through illustrative examples, this paper demonstrates that the literary and artistic creations of minority populations can be a valuable ethnographic source for investigating their self-representations. The pages of these novels represent a space for articulating ethnic as well as racialized traumas, caused by both personal and transgenerational experiences of discrimination, stigmatization, and marginalization of the Romani population in this region. The thematization of life between two worlds, the dichotomy between the community of origin and the mainstream society, is a key characteristic of the Romani bildungsroman.