Norwegian memorial work after July 22, 2011

Abstract

Following the twin terror attacks of July 22, 2011, two public memorials will be built, one in Oslo, another close to Utøya. Furthermore, since the Labour Youth (AUF) experienced the massacre in their summer-paradise Utøya, AUF decided to reclaim the island by building their own private memorials to mourn the dead and teach democracy. The concept of “memorial” was endorsed by both agencies and the decisions were grounded in the engaged public spirit that had followed the massacres. Huge flower oceans were built in Oslo and the acts were interpreted as popular expressions of “love, solidarity and grief,” and as vivid messages to Breivik: “not your people.” Yet, some of the locals in Utøya’s vicinity did not want to re-engage with the trauma of the massacre, and refused memorials close to their home. Why does AUF welcome memorial sites open to ritual performance and inter-active memory work but the local people do not? The article explores this antagonism as expression of different forms of symbolic communication, performativity and ritual, and as result of political disagreements. To separate the political from the social, the political protest from social condolence, the author uses analytical distinctions developed by H. Arendt and C. Mouffe.