"We are not Poles, just Europeans, normal people!" : the Eastern Eenlargement of the European Union and challenges for identity in Polish fiction

Despite the fact that Poland has undoubtedly always been a part of Europe (like Belarus is now), during the process of joining the European Union the phrase "we finally join Europe" was popularly used. The Eastern Enlargement of the European Union was one of the biggest and more significant events in Polish history after the 1989 Transition. It was anticipated, fantasized about, criticized, feared of and, most of all, constantly discussed. I would like to focus on this process from the perspective of Polish culture, but with a significant reference to other countries which joined the EU in 2004. Counterintuitively, I would like to concentrate my analysis on fiction written by young authors. Most of them were too young to vote in the accession referendum in 2003; all of them enter their adulthood as citizens of a country which was already a member of EU. I would like to consider the Eastern Enlargement as a history-changing and also an identity-changing event