PASSIONS OF IDENTIFICATION: DISCOURSE, PLEASURE AND EUROPEAN IDENTITY

In the text the author discusses the problem of the European identity - which emerged in the earlier stage of the process of European integration - from the perspective of the discourse theory. This approach was overlooked in the early stages of the development of the European studies, in which the economistic approach emphasizing only the economic benefits of the European integration prevailed; today, however, the European identity issue is one of the central questions, and the success of the process of the European integration depends on. The question of the European identity has for a long time been identified with the concept of "Europe's positive public image" appealing to the citizens and to the political communities involved in the process of the European integration. The question of the European identity was for the first time systematically elaborated on in an EC document - the Copenhagen Declaration of 1973 - and since then the debate on Europe's political and cultural identity has permanently been on the agenda, particularly of the Eurosceptic political movements and ideas. The author looks into the theory of identity from the perspective of the latest contributions, particularly from the perspective of modern social theories, and suggests that the European studies ought to take into consideration the dual nature of the identification, the discursive and the affective, as well as the symbolic and the libidinal. That is why the European studies have to work out how to thwart Euroscepticism and develop the strategies of countering the phenomena such as a lack of pervasive identifications of citizens with Europe.