In 1997, on the Easter Friday, the Albanian boat Kater I Rades, overloaded of migrants trying to reach Italy, sunk in the Strait of Otranto, after a collision with the Italian military navy corvette Sibilla. Eighty-one people died. The aim of this chapter is to analyse, from a semiotic perspective, the memorialisation process of this event in Italy, in particular the decision to use the wreckage of the boat for constructing a monument to be placed in the town of Otranto. What I argue is that the memorialisation process did not elevate the memory of the memory of the event, but instead it foreclosed the possibility of remembering and grieving the victims.
Memorialising Boat Tragedies in the Mediterranean: the Case of the Kater I Rades
Salerno, Daniele
2016
Abstract
In 1997, on the Easter Friday, the Albanian boat Kater I Rades, overloaded of migrants trying to reach Italy, sunk in the Strait of Otranto, after a collision with the Italian military navy corvette Sibilla. Eighty-one people died. The aim of this chapter is to analyse, from a semiotic perspective, the memorialisation process of this event in Italy, in particular the decision to use the wreckage of the boat for constructing a monument to be placed in the town of Otranto. What I argue is that the memorialisation process did not elevate the memory of the memory of the event, but instead it foreclosed the possibility of remembering and grieving the victims.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
