Eastern Europeans in Contemporary Literature and Culture: Imagining New Europe provides a comprehensive study of the way in which contemporary writers, filmmakers, and the media have represented the recent phenomenon of Eastern European migration to the UK and Western Europe following the enlargement of the EU in the 21st century, the social and political changes after the fall of communism, and the Brexit vote. Exploring the recurring figures of Eastern Europeans as a new reservoir of cheap labour, the author engages with a wide range of both mainstream and neglected authors, films, and programmes, including Rose Tremain, John Lanchester, Marina Lewycka, Polly Courtney, Dubravka Ugrešić, Kapka Kassabova, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Mike Phillips, It’s a Free World, Gypo, Britain’s Hardest Workers, The Poles are Coming, and Czech Dream. Analyzing the treatment of Eastern Europeans as builders, fruit pickers, nannies, and victims of sextrafficking, and ways of resisting the stereotypes, this is an important intervention into debates about Europe, migration, and postcommunist transition to capitalism, as represented in multiple contemporary cultural texts.
Table of Content
“Where are they flocking from?”.- It’s a Free World?: Eastern Europeans in Contemporary Media and Film.- Representing Them: Eastern Europeans in Contemporary British Fiction.-Representing ‘Us’: Eastern Europe Writes Back.- New Alliances?: Eastern Europeans in Contemporary Black British Writing.- Eastern Europe and Race: Cosmopolitanism and the Post-Yugoslav Condition in Dubravka Ugrešić’s Essays.- Goodbye, New Europeans?.
About the author
Vedrana Veličković is Principal Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Brighton, UK. Her research interests are in contemporary literature, specifically Black British and postcommunist writings. Previous publications include articles and book chapters on the intersections between postcolonialism and postcommunism, Bernardine Evaristo, Dubravka Ugrešić, Vesna Goldsworthy, and literary theory.
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