Introduction: Negotiating Memories of Protest -- 1. 'Years of lead'? Political Violence in Perspective -- 2. 'Wonderful years'? Myth, Nostalgia and Possessive Memory -- 3. The Trauma of 1977 -- 4. Mourning and Moral Duty. The Affective Labour of Victims' Families -- 5. Political Uses of the Past. The Official Memory of 1977 -- 6. Rebuilding Group Identities to the Far Left -- 7. Memory Sites: the Negotiation of Protest in the Urban Space -- Conclusion: Blocked in Private Spaces
Summary
Negotiating Memories of Protest in Western Europe explores the transmission of memories of European protest movements in the late 1960s and 1970s. Focusing on the specific case of Italy, the book examines the ways in which different memory agents negotiate memories of violence against left-wing activists, perpetrated by representatives of the state. It does so through a discussion of commemorative rituals, memory sites and other forms of 'memory work' performed by various social groups within the local setting of Bologna, where a left-wing student and protester was shot dead by police in 1977. By drawing on this fascinating case study, Andrea Hajek lays bare the dynamic relation between official and unofficial memories of conflict and and explores the challenges of historical research into social movements