‘He Must Continue Living Through Us’: The Role of Living Memorials in Continuing Bonds with the Deceased in the Aftermath of Terrorist Violence in France (2015–2016)

Two of the deadliest terrorist attacks committed in France—the 13 November 2015 Paris attacks and the 14 July 2016 attack in Nice—have sent unprecedented shockwaves throughout the country and been the subject of numerous commemorative practices ranging from spontaneous memorials to state-led projects such as the inauguration of a memorial-museum and a memorial garden in tribute to the victims. While inert memorials and public commemorative events have attracted vast public and media attention, individual affect-laden practices of remembrance have rarely been considered (e.g. Allen and Brown 2011). Little attention has also been paid to the role such embodied forms of memorialisation play in supporting bereaved families in finding meaning in their experiences of loss and coming to terms with grief. Based on phenomenological interviews with bereaved parents in the aftermath of terrorism in France, this chapter aims to expand our understanding of memorialisation beyond the traditional memorial space and argues that affective memory-making labour does not only contribute to the enduring remembrance of the lost loved one, but also presents a way of continuing bonds with the deceased as part of the individual grief process.