The starting point for this analysis is the WWI, an important break in Italian-German relations. If before the Great War Germany could see Italy as a trusted ally and the Kingdom admired German economic, military, industrial and scientific development, Italy's joining the Entente caused an inevitable break in relations with Germany. As military events unfolded, expectations and disappointments were reflected in the press on both sides. Indeed, the latter became the only instrument in the hands of governments to influence and manipulate public opinion towards the new ‘enemy’.

The first presentation in this session, therefore, aims to emphasise how the correspondents from Italy and Germany for Il Secolo and Berliner Tageblatt, by pouring their personal experiences (e.g. the harassment suffered by Italian journalists in Germany) and, inevitably, the position of the central government towards the former ally, influenced public opinion by giving a particular narrative of the ‘other’ in their articles.

In addition to offering an overview of the possible representations of the ‘enemy’ through Italian and German newspapers, the session aims to analyse the perspective proposed by literary magazines, which were particularly popular in Italy at the beginning of the 20th century. The latter were especially influenced by the anti and pro-German positions, already in circulation before the Great War, and contributed to the general debate on Italy's participation in the conflict, often recurring to negative representations of the ‘enemy’, also used in war propaganda (e.g., the battle conducted by the ‘Latin civilisation’ against the German «barbarians»).

For the second presentation in this session, therefore, the literary and interventionist magazine "Il Marzocco" will be examined. This journal, a case study that is still little analysed at the moment, took an active part in the anti-Germanic debate, reserving for it much of the space usually given to the Italian literary scene.

A new and renewed perception of the ‘enemy’ through the medium of the press made a significant return after the WWII, the temporal limes set for this session. In the third presentation, the focus is no longer only on the German/Italian as ‘enemy’ in toto: after the WWII, in fact, the adversary to fear and beware of became ‘the communist’. This, of course, as has already been observed, also affects the press, which cannot avoid embracing some particular narratives of the ‘new enemy’ looming on the West.

The session, therefore, aims to analyze moments and situations that differ in terms of historical, geo-political and cultural positions, but which are united by the creation and transmission of the ‘enemy’ narrative, which the press disseminates among a mass audience. From which not only a portrait of the ‘enemy’ emerges, but the very identity of the culture and the historical phase that produces it, offering an important point of view to understand it.