self-insertion
Sign in to savethumb|Sandro Botticelli's painting of the Adoration of the Magi has an inserted self-portrait at the far right: the position in the corner and the gaze out to the viewer are very typical of such self-portraits. Self-insertion is a literary device in which the author writes themselves into the story under the guise of, or from the perspective of, a fictional character (see author surrogate). The character, overtly or otherwise, behaves like, has the personality of, and may even be described as physically resembling the author or reader of the work.
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4 sectionsContents
- Literary forms
- Examples
- See also
- References
thumb|Sandro Botticelli's painting of the Adoration of the Magi has an inserted self-portrait at the far right: the position in the corner and the gaze out to the viewer are very typical of such self-portraits. Self-insertion is a literary device in which the author writes themselves into the story under the guise of, or from the perspective of, a fictional character (see author surrogate). The character, overtly or otherwise, behaves like, has the personality of, and may even be described as physically resembling the author or reader of the work.
In visual art, the equivalent of self-insertion is the inserted self-portrait, where the artist includes a self-portrait in a painting of a narrative subject. This has been a common artistic device since at least the European Renaissance.