Self-insertion

Sandro Botticelli's painting of the Adoration of the Magi has an "inserted self-portrait". The position in the (right) corner, and the gaze out to the viewer, are very typical of such self-portraits.

Self-insertion is a literary device in which a fictional character who is the real author of a work of fiction appears as an idealized character within that fiction, either overtly or in disguise.^[1]

The device should not be confused with a first-person narrator, or an author surrogate, or a character somewhat based on the author, whether intentionally or not. Many characters have been described as unintentional self-insertions, implying that their author is unconsciously using them as an author surrogate.

In art, the equivalent is the "inserted self-portrait", where the artist paints a self-portrait in a narrative subject, which has been common since at least the Renaissance.

Examples

• The Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham.
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut^[2][3]
• The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles^[4]
• Stan Lee in different Marvel comic books and movies.
• Clive Cussler author of Dirk Pitt novels, has inserted himself as a deus ex machina character in several of his books.^[5]
• Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais, in the chapter "How Pantagruel with his tongue covered a whole army, and what the author saw in his mouth."
• Milton: A Poem in Two Books by William Blake.
• The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.
• The title character of the Rush Revere series by Rush Limbaugh.
• I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
• Homestuck by Andrew Hussie

See also

• Self-reference
• Mary Sue

References

External links

• tvtropes: Author Avatar