The East within the West
Imports in Popular Culture
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Numerous products of Western culture are imported from Eastern Europe. This is often overlooked, because the grievance struck up long ago by the Critical Theory of the “McDonaldisation” of European culture defines the debate to this day. On the other hand, impartial individual studies are as a rule limited in their analysis of popular culture to a certain national context. If, however, one follows the import routes of prominent phenomena to Western popular culture, it is seen that East European traditions and influences are present in various ways: They can be hidden by careful camouflage, made to adapt to public taste by cultural transformation or appear as something strikingly exotic.
(Osteuropa 5/2007, pp. 3–22)