Abstract

This paper offers an analysis on memorial processes and on the social change of collective identity of the populations who lived through the «Vajont disaster». These processes arise when a disaster provokes a breech in the social history of these groups and their identity. It is thus possible to talk about «cultural trauma» for the Vajont case study. My research on narrative and communicative mechanisms and on spatial and urban phenomena following the dramatic event draws from the application of the «cultural trauma» construct. The social construction of a collective trauma is investigated by explaining several dimensions showing its specific features and contents. A central role is also played by «public arenas» because they have allowed communication with a wider public and generate a new identity, that of the «survivor».