Images of the Kosovo War

Abstract

This article presents a qualitative analysis of a sample of Italian children’s drawings and writings about the war in Kosovo. The analysis gives an in-depth reading of the children’s material, highlighting their feelings and the way in which they represent the dynamics and the protagonists of war. It is noted that the way that war is represented by children is filtered by adults’ interpretations, whose own vision is dichotomous. The children’s vision of Kosovo reflects the fears, nightmares and stereotypes of the adults, even if mediated by the particular sensitivity of youth. The moral duty to help their peers in Kosovo and the need to explain war as unavoidable are mixed with the need to keep one’s own space untouched. The article concludes that it is precisely this kaleidoscopic vision of the war that strengthens the adults’ stereotypes, according to which Milosevic is the ‘bad guy’, who must be overthrown, but the people from Kosovo are a threat to the rhythm of everyday life.