Language, Normativity and Europeanisation

"This fascinating book provides an original and sophisticated analysis of how the language, songs and performances in the Eurovision Song Contest construct discourses of Europeanisation, nationalism and sexuality. It is a relevant and timely contribution to our understanding of European identity." (Paul Baker, Professor, Lancaster University, UK) "Language, Normativity and Europeanisation shows how tensions between nationalist and transnational/European-wide identities shape verbal, visual and musical performances during the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC). The book explains why many ESC contestants turn to English as their source for resolving these tensions. English is often associated with non-traditional sexualities and desires in ESC performances, strengthening the status of English as a marker of national transgression in those settings. This is a study of "queer English" formation, though not necessarily a study of a queer English created by queers." (William L. Leap, Emeritus Professor, American University, Washington DC, USA) "Through rigorous data analysis, Heiko Motschenbacher succeeds in developing a critical approach to understanding the layers of complexity seen in the European identity formation processes. His insightful findings make significant theoretical contributions in the field of discourse studies. This timely publication is a must-read for those serious about linguistic issues concerning the intersection of language, culture, race, and hegemony in a rapidly changing world." (Mie Hiramoto, Associate Professor, National University of Singapore, Singapore) "The book provides a very thorough and comprehensive discourse analysis of various facets of Europeanisation. Focusing on the ESC as a pan-European event in popular media culture, it is a refreshing departure from predominantly political processes of Europeanisation, shedding light on discursive and linguistic practices of identity construction and negotiation of normativity." (Antje Wilton, Junior Professor, University of Siegen, Germany)

This book focuses on linguistic practices of identity construction in a popular culture media context, the Eurovision Song Contest.This book focuses on linguistic practices of identity construction in a popular culture media context, the Eurovision Song Contest. Subscribing to a normativity-based approach to critical discourse analysis, it studies Europeanisation as it surfaces at the discursive interface of European, national and sexual identities in Eurovision lyrics and performances. Research in critical discourse analysis that deals with Europeanisation, or the discursive work involved in European identity formation, has so far mainly studied data from EU political contexts that illustrate a top-down approach to what Europeanness means. The present book complements this earlier research in several ways, focusing on the linguistic construction of identities, and its interrelation with non-linguistic modes of signification in the Eurovision Song Contest. Discursive mechanisms that prove to be central for the normative shifts of Europeanisation in the given context are de-essentialisation, inclusion, camp, crossing and languaging.