Police violence in Genova 2001. Between tests of narrative coherence and public formulation

This article analyzes ''testimonial literature'' dealing with the violent repression of the counter-summit that was hold in Genoa in July 2001, coinciding with the G8 meeting. First we present the various elements of the corpus studied: journalistic testimonies on the facts, visual and bodily attestations of violences, testimonies based on expertise, parliamentary reports, idological and lyrical elaborations. Then we describe the unity of rhetorical structures of denunciation and justification that characterize them. Subsequently, the analysis of processes of identity elaboration and reflexivity of the alter-globalist movement (between uses and thematization of violence) allows to introduce to a study of narratives as attestations of reality as well as tests of narrative coherence, participating in the constitution of a collective memory. While at the same time legal recourse, by means of a formulation of the denounced exactions in terms of ''affairs'', only unrolls with difficulty in front of media and political hush-up strategies.