Clashing Temporalities of Public Mourning: Warsaw after the Death of Pope John Paul II

Abstract

Public mourning in Poland after the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005 acquired the status of a “Second Holy Week,” but not only because of the role of the institutional Church. The performative dynamics of spontaneous embodied mourning in response to the passing of the Pope warrant close scrutiny as the interactions of individual mourners were appropriated by normative forces that shaped subsequent commemorative behaviors.