Abstract:

This chapter deals with the re-functionalization of LLs by civil society in response to terrorist attacks that have been striking the Western world since 2001 and the way the authorities react to the appropriation of the public space. In particular, our data were collected following the incidents that occurred in Madrid after the train bombings on March 11, 2004, and the shootings in Paris on January 7 (Charlie Hebdo) and November 13, 2015.
In the first part concerned with theoretical and methodological questions, we will discuss the specific relation of the linguistic and semiotic practice of public mourning in its relation to place. We will highlight the struggle for public space as a process of de- and reterritorialization focusing on the formulation of speech, the creation and dissemination of slogans and semiotic practices concerned with the construction of group identities. In the second part, we will deal with the parallels and differences in the reactions of the Spanish and French civil societies and authorities. We will attempt to explain the differences referring to the specific historical settings in which the respective attacks took place.