Description
Book SynopsisExplores the multiple meanings of the November 2004 murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh and the different reactions it elicited: among the Amsterdam-based artistic and intellectual subculture, the wider Dutch public, the local and international Muslim communities, the radical Islamic movement, and the broader international community.
Trade Review“Ron Eyerman has combined his two exquisite skills of an exceptionally thorough researcher and a consummate theorist to produce a uniquely enlightening study of the intricate mechanism which—in our times of the frailty of social setting, acute public uncertainty, and heightened susceptibility to moral panics—leads to the production of ‘traumatic events,’ subsequently deployed as catalysts in the reshaping of public memory and reinterpretation of collective identities. A masterly study of one of the most neuralgic phenomena in contemporary culture, bound to inform and direct our efforts to comprehend its dynamics.”—
Zygmunt Bauman, Professor Emeritus, University of Leeds and University of Warsaw
“Ron Eyerman has produced a theoretically sophisticated analysis of the murder of Theo van Gogh, evoking themes of globalization, immigration, free speech, law and justice, gender relations, journalism and the media, political tolerance, and multiculturalism, all of which are at the center of debates in the contemporary social sciences. This is an important book.”—
Robin Wagner-Pacifici, author of
The Moro Morality Play: Terrorism as Social DramaTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
1. Assassination as Public Performance: The Murder of Theo van Gogh 1
2. Mediating Social Drama 24
3. Perpetrators and Victims 56
4. The Clash of Civilizations: A Multicultural Drama 102
5. A Dutch Dilemma: Free Speech, Religious Freedom, and Multicultural Tolerance 141
6. Cultural Trauma and Social Drama 161
Notes 175
Bibliography 203
Index 215
