Image of Europe in Macedonian Drama

Abstract

By voicing the question about the ways in which the over-the-national European identity can be created amidst conditions of globalization, this text starts with the thesis that such a concept is faced with problems which need to be resolved first and foremost at the national level. By problematizing multiculturalism as a “utopian theory” which does not solve any problems at the practical level, and viewing interculturalism as a potential danger to the “smaller” cultures, this text, through an analysis of the plays by Goran Stefanovski, points at the conditions that hinder the possible acceptance of the idea of a Europe without borders. Through four plays, Euralien, Hotel Europa, Ex-Yu, and Goce, Stefanovski equally criticizes Western Europe, for its construction of the problematic Other, with its visa regime, and its marginalization, as well as the Balkans, with the mythologizing of its nationally-romanticized narrative. The paper sheds light on the fact that the acceptance of a common (shared) European identity, a necessity which propagates itself amidst conditions of globalization, depends on the ways in which Europe will resolve the said problems.