'Gemeen volk': zigeuners in Europese streekliteratuur

‘COMMON PEOPLE’ Gypsies in European regional fiction Regional fiction is a genre in which the tension between local and national cultures tends to play an important role. This article explores the representation of a category of characters that seems to escape that binary opposition: gipsies. More specifically, it analyzes six case studies from regional literature produced in Ireland and the Low Countries to find out whether we can speak of a transnational trope. Although the representation of gipsies in the case studies are different in several respects, there are also striking similarities. The most important one is that the gipsies are not just mere outsiders posing a threat to the regional community. Rather, paradoxically, they constitute a model for that local community regarding the preservation and regeneration of its own cultural values.