Performing Stragismo and Counterspectacularisation: Italian Right-Wing Terrorism and Its Legacies

by Irene Ros

Overview

Performing Stragismo and Counterspectacularisation offers a new theoretical lens on political violence as spectacle, drawing on performance theory to explore how acts of violence – particularly terrorism – are staged, circulated, and remembered. It interrogates the role of spectacularity in shaping public discourse, tracing how power and media mobilise violence into a visual and rhetorical regime that leaves deep imprints on collective memory.

In response, this book proposes counterspectacularisation: a repertoire of critical strategies developed by the public and by performance-makers to resist or reframe the spectacle of terror. Through a mix of theoretical reflection, close analysis of performance case studies, and four original artworks created by the author, the text explores how performance can respond ethically to silences and fractures in memory. It advocates for cross-disciplinary approaches that challenge dominant representations of violence and that offer alternative frameworks for grappling with trauma, remembrance, and representation in an age of political spectacle.

This will be of particular value to researchers working on the afterlives of terrorism and state violence, especially within memory studies, media studies, and trauma theory. It will also speak to scholars in Italian studies, ethnography, and performance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781040668467
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/22/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	228
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Irene Ros is a theatre and performance practitioner, SGSAH alumna, and independent researcher. Co-founder of Cut Moose, a charity exploring inclusive storytelling through diverse art forms, she shares her research internationally through papers and screenings at conferences and symposia, and recently published "Will Cinderella Fight Inequality?" (IJPADM, 2025).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part One

Chapter One Performing (state) violence – “I remember images of this train ripped apart”

Introduction

The spectacular 1970s

The aesthetics of stragisti

The Italicus spectacle

The Bologna station spectacle

Spectacularised trials

Representation

Conclusion

Chapter Two Performing resistance – “Bologna has a lot to teach”

Introduction

The influence of Nuovo Teatro

The state funerals and the resistance narrative

The Italicus commemoration

The Bologna train station commemorative complex

Counterspectacularisation

Conclusion

Chapter Three Bodies in remembrance – “They became collective dead. They are ours too”

Introduction

“Da ferito a morte”

The two Antigones

From Cantiere 2 agosto to Un’altra vita

Conclusion

Part Two

Chapter Four Methodologies of Encounter – “I don’t have any particular memories”

Introduction

Wider context

Methodology

Recruitment

Intersubjectivity and power dynamics

Research design

Findings

Conclusion

Chapter Five Representing memory gaps – “It looks like a movie, but it was like this”

Introduction

Devising counterspectacularisation

Conclusion

Conclusions

Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

‘Performing Stragismo and Counterspectacularisation is a timely intervention that recentres the impact of right-wing terrorism on Italy’s memory culture, challenging dominant narratives and demonstrating how performance can serve as a powerful medium for collective remembrance and political reckoning.’

Bryce Lease, Professor, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, UK

From the Publisher