| Abstract [eng] |
Popular culture in contemporary society remains linked to politics and ideology. Traditional forms and practices of national culture are supplemented and replaced in their impact by meanings and images drawn from popular culture—the multiple, shifting, and contested meanings of popular culture. Popular culture appropriates, represents, reformulates, and reproduces transnational cultural forms so that forms of national cultural identity are no longer recognizable. Scholarly discussions revolve around two conceptions of the nation: the political ‘nation by an act of will’ and the nation defined by culture, which is often linguistically defined and ethnically based. Western Europe is considered the birthplace of 'civic' and inclusive nationalism that unites people living in the same country. At the same time, Central and Eastern Europe is associated with the ethno-cultural and exclusive nationalism that divides citizens along ethnic lines. Nations can be viewed also as ‘systems of cultural representations’ – a discourse - a way of constructing meaning, through which an imagined community is reproduced. These constructed national identities can be considered discursive sketches - narrations of national culture (Hall,1996a). The discursive formation of Europe in the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) corresponds more with the political rather than the nationalist type of frame. The ESC is a popular culture media event that renegotiates national identity from a European perspective. Representational practices that express the desire to belong to Europe challenge essentialist discourses of identity, that are usually anchored at the national level. At the same time, ESC performances in the contest are used for national representation - they have an official function to communicate traditional (received) normative self-perceptions of national identity. However, in a context where Europeanness dominates national issues, the nation can be staged in a way that contradicts traditional (national) discourses to appeal to European transnationalism. One may question the authenticity of the normative national identity represented at the ESC by performers selected for this purpose at the national level contests: can pop music genres authentically represent a nation? Is it possible for a three-minute musical performance to convey the complexity of a nation? Isn't the discourse of Europeanness another threat to the nationalism of Eastern European ethnic nationalism that has become the driving force behind the liberation of many post-Soviet states? |
