De la parca al microbio. Las epidemias y sus representaciones en publicaciones periódicas ilustradas argentinas (Buenos Aires, 1867-1919)

Abstract

In this paper we explore representations of epidemics in Argentina in illustrated periodicals, from the cholera outbreak of 1867 to the “Spanish flu” of 1918-9. The route through half a century allows us to observe changes and continuities in relation to the imaginations developed by the communities to face this type of traumatic episodes, expressed in different printed publications in Buenos Aires such as El mosquito, El inválido argentino, Revista del Río de La Plata, Caras y Caretas, Fray Mocho, El Hogar and La vida moderna. The empirical approach is based on conceiving the press as fundamental actors in the construction of an agenda in public opinion, being protagonists of reality more than mere exhibitors. Hence, we consider that the selected publications offer us clues to dimension their resonances in the local scene, in times when the medical scientific paradigm was going through instances of redefinitions, in the passage from the miasmatic theory to microbiotics.

Keywords

• Argentina
• representations
• epidemics
• pictures
• illustrated periodicals