Introduction: Remembering Urban Terror in Europe—Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Memorialisation, Narratives, and the Politics of Memory

Abstract

Taking the 2004 bombings in Madrid’s Atocha Station as a case study, this chapter introduces and explores the central themes of the work that follows: the narrating, remembering, and forgetting of terror attacks across Europe between 2004 and 2019. The aim of this volume is to offer ‘thick descriptions’ (Geertz, 1973) of the material, cultural, and political impact of this violence. As such, this introduction offers an initial contextualisation of the debate surrounding political violence in Europe—including state violence, mass atrocities, epistemic violence, and urban attacks—and proposes that the ways in which we remember such violence is a question not only of Europe’s past, but also one of re-imagining its potential futures. In particular, considering questions of politics and power, this chapter explores the definitions of ‘terror’ and ‘terrorism’ as concepts, and aims to show that these labels should be studied as both political and cultural phenomena. Finally, this introduction also contextualises the use of art throughout the volume, suggesting that works of art may be understood as a new means through which terror and violence can be remembered, imagined, and commemorated across Europe.