Performing Slavicness on the Global Stage: "My Słowianie" as a Case of Self- Exoticization and Self-Colonization
Performing Slavicness on the Global Stage: "My Słowianie" as a Case of Self- Exoticization and Self-Colonization

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the Polish Eurovision Song Contest entry My Słowianie—We Are Slavic (2014) as a cultural performance through which Slavic identity is constructed, negotiated, and transformed within contemporary global popular culture. Drawing on the concepts of cultural identity (Stuart Hall), stereotype and ambivalence (Homi K. Bhabha) cultural hybridity (Marwan Kraidy), and self-colonization (Alexander Kiossev), the article analyses the complex relationships between folklore, popular culture, and cultural stereotypes. The performance combines selected elements of Polish folk tradition with the aesthetic codes of global pop culture, creating an ambivalent representation that simultaneously celebrates and reproduces stereotypical images of Slavicness. The article argues that My Słowianie operates between the mechanisms of self-exoticization and self-colonization, revealing broader tensions characteristic of semi-peripheral cultures seeking international recognition while articulating their own cultural distinctiveness.

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