El espejo del Emir

El semanario La Nota como plataforma de exhibición pública del Emir Emín Arslán

Abstract

This paper analyzes some strategies of self-representation deployed by Emir Emín Arslán in the weekly La Nota (1915-1921). It is argued that La Nota was the main medium for the construction of the public image of Arslán –who was its founder and main animator– and the platform from which he sought to position himself as the best interpreter of the Orient in the Río de la Plata. For this purpose, the Emir exhibited fragments of his own autobiography and this exhibitionism was, simultaneously, one of the main strategies to differentiate the weekly from its commercial competitors within the Argentine magazine field of the early twentieth century. The article proposes a qualitative study of the images of himself that Arslán distributed in the magazine, in order to delineate the main self-referential topics and the elements with which he constructed his image as a cultural mediator. Some autobiographical scenes that crystallize positions of enunciation are presented in order to illuminate the uses of these scenes as argumentative elements and justificatory supports of the positions on international politics and oriental culture held by the weekly.