Trauma on the Line : Terrorism and Testimony in the anni di piombo

Abstract

This article provides a reading of Italy's experience of political violence and terrorism in the anni di piombo as a collective cultural trauma. It explores in particular the process of insidious trauma, i.e., the second-hand lateral spreading of psychological damage beyond the immediate victims and into the wider community. With reference to L'attesa, an unpublished memoir held at the Archivio Diaristico Nazionale, it traces the traumatic impact of the author's exposure to media reports and visual imagery of terrorism in his accounts of his debased experience of train travel and his impaired relationships with both public space and other passengers.