Is “balkanism” still actual? A study of Italian newspapers’ perception of Islam in the Western Balkans

The aim of this paper is to assess whether the term “Balkanism”, coined by Maria Todorova, is still actual in its definition. To fulfil such objective, the term Balkanism will be analysed in its meaning whilst its growing relevance will be assessed through the analysis of several articles that appeared in Italian newspapers. In the recent literature about Balkanism, very little effort is taken to understand whether the term exists in newspapers’ narrative, especially in Italy. Indeed, the country, bordering on the Balkan peninsula, always reserved a special consideration about the region, even if the post-war influence over the Balkans has been monopolized by other countries such as Germany. To fill the gap in the literature, it is therefore important to analyse the narrative of the most important national newspapers and, going over the articles in the period 2013-2017, we can assure how “Balkanism” is actual in its definition.