La rappresentazione del Turco nella pubblicistica italiana degli anni Venti

This research work explores and analyzes the representation of the Turk in Italian essays and publications from the early 1920s, with the aim of focusing on the discursive and conceptual repertoire concerning images, ideal models, rhetoric, projections, and the Italian interest directed toward the eastern part of the Mediterranean. The study investigates the image of the "Other," ultimately defining a canon for identifying the "New Turk" and the Italian perspective on this portion of the mare nostrum. This approach situates the representation of the Turk within a historical, cultural, and identity-based continuum of Italian interest in the Mediterranean, and within the broader process of defining the "Other" in relation to Italy, Italians, their identity, and their vital space. To construct a national canon of the Turk, three paradigms were identified as contributing to the building of the Turk’s image and its representation in Italian publications. The first part of the thesis analyzes the first paradigm, reconstructed based on Italy’s territorial interests in Asia Minor. This chapter offers a cross-referenced contextualization of major Ottoman events as commented upon by Italian media and diplomacy, Italy’s ambitions in the region, and the dreams of expanding influence in Asia Minor — ambitions that became unattainable with the Kemalist victory. The second part of the research delves into the second paradigm, focusing on the abolition of the Islamic Caliphate. This event was seen, by some Italian commentators, as an even more radical break than the abolition of the Sultanate. Finally, the study identifies a third paradigm centered on the abolition of the fez. Italians in particular, largely did not ignore the fact that, for many Muslims, the imposition of the Western hat was deeply detested. Thus, analyzing the figure of the Turk in a historical context marked by profound transitions in both countries means delving into the heart of an evolving cultural process, one that uses the construction of the “Other" to define the contours of national identity. This process, while rooted in the liberal era, gained new significance during the 1920s. Reflecting on these dynamics today not only reconstructs a fragment of Italian cultural history but also invites critical inquiry into the mechanisms through which exclusion, distance, and ultimately symbolic violence are produced within discursive and conceptual languages. The figure of the Turk, with its ambivalence and persistence, thus invites us to question how images and narratives shape—or distort—collective identities. Understanding how the image of a Turk functional to national identity needs was formed, disseminated, and normalized ultimately provides essential tools for deconstructing similar narratives aimed at defining other forms of alterity. In this sense, this thesis is not only a work of historical and cultural analysis but also a starting point for critically reflecting on how the representation of the Other continues to define the boundaries of “us” even today.