MAKING THE OTHERNESS OUR OWN

Abstract

At the beginning of the 21st century, several works appeared on the Hungarian book market on the topic of Roma identity and the situation of the Roma population in Hungary. Kriszta Bódis’s novel Kemény vaj [Hard Butter] (2003) and Zsuzsa Vathy’s volume of short stories Columbo autója [Columbo’s Car] (2011) apply significantly different strategies in this regard. The goal of this analysis is to show how the two novels deal with the matter of (ethnic) otherness. The methodological starting point of the study is the theory of queer studies, especially the theoretical considerations of Błażej Warkocki a Polish researcher in non-heteronormative literature.