Eurovision and the ‘New’ Europe
The socio-political and economic realities of Europe as well as larger conceptual frameworks about what ‘Europe’ means are shifting rapidly in our times. Europe is becoming the site of multi-directional flows of power, finance, ideas, and bodies. The ESC, with its own unique imaginative and aesthetic modality, has been since its founding in 1956 a symbolic contact zone between European cultures, an arena for European identification in which both national solidarity and participation in a European identity are confirmed. It is also a site where cultural struggles over the meanings, frontiers and limits of Europe, as well as similarities and differences existing within Europe, are enacted. This presentation will introduce the Eurovision and the ‘New’ Europe project, an ongoing research network (launched in 2009) which aims to advance critical thinking about the contemporary ESC with a focus on the ways in which the Contest has reflected, and perhaps driven, changing perceptions and realities of Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Dr. Karen Fricker is a lecturer in contemporary theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London, and deputy London theatre critic for Variety (US). Her research interests include theatre, globalisation, and nation (with a focus on the Québec theatre director Robert Lepage); and the ESC. She has written and broadcast about theatre and about Eurovision for The Guardian, The Irish Times, The New York Times, RTÉ, the BBC, and the CBC.
Dr. Milija Gluhovic is Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance at the University of Warwick (UK). His major research interests include 20th- and 21st-century European theatre and performance; memory studies; discourses of European identity, migrations and human rights; and critical theory. He is currently working on two book projects: European Memories: Spectacles of Loss, Mourning and Intervention and Performing a ‘New’ Europe: Contexts, Ethics, Politics.