Writing an Icon

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Anita Jarczok. Writing an Icon

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Writing an Icon

Celebrity Culture and the Invention of Anaïs Nin

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Another debate regarding Nin’s Diary that I hope to revive in this and the following chapter is the construction of her self. The claim that Nin created a character in her Diary is not a new one, and several of Nin’s critics have pointed to this fact. Nin’s Diary has been frequently regarded as representing Nin not as she is but the Nin persona. This claim gained even more ground as theories of autobiography advanced and the creation of the persona started to be perceived as an inherent characteristic of any life narrative. As a result, critics began to comment on Nin’s persona not only in the published Diary but also in the original one.

Focusing mainly on the published Diary, Nin’s early critics, Franklin and Schneider, regard each volume as a journal-novel, with Nin as the main character surrounded by other minor characters. They wonder whether the success of the first diary influenced the editing of subsequent volumes. They ask whether Nin consciously or unconsciously portrayed herself in a certain way in the first volume and then changed the portrayal in subsequent volumes. Nancy Scholar also points to Nin’s conscious intentions to present herself to the public in a specific manner. She remarks that “the reader must consider the legend Nin wished to create in these pages of a courageous, independent woman struggling to forge her own identity and art.”32

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