Eastern Europeans in Contemporary Literature and Culture: Imagining New Europe

This timely volume provides the first 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 Ugresic, Kapka Kassabova, Kwame Kwei-Armah, 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 sex trafficking, and ways of resisting the stereotypes, this is an important intervention into debates about Europe, migration, and post-communist transition to capitalism, as represented in multiple contemporary cultural texts.