Sandro Botticelli's painting of theAdoration 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 aliterary device in which the author writes themselves into the story under the guise of, or from the perspective of, a fictionalcharacter (seeauthor surrogate).[1] 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.
Invisual art, the equivalent of self-insertion is theinserted self-portrait, where the artist includes aself-portrait in a painting of a narrative subject. This has been a common artistic device since at least theEuropean Renaissance.
Amongprofessional writers, the intentional, deliberate use of first-person and third-person self-insertion techniques are commonly considered to be an unoriginal action on the author's part, and represents a paucity of creative thought in their writing.[2][3]
Similar literary devices include the author doubling as thefirst-person narrator, or writing anauthor surrogate in thethird-person, or adding in a character who is partially based on the author, whether the author included it intentionally or not. Many characters have been described asunintentional self-insertions, implying that their author is unconsciously using them as an author surrogate.[4]
Self-insertion can also be employed in asecond-person narrative, utilizing the imagination of the reader and theirsuspension of disbelief. The reader, referred to in the second person, is depicted as interacting with another character, with the intent to encourage the reader'simmersion andpsychological projection of themselves into the story, imaging that they, themselves, are performing the written story.[5] While examples in published fiction of second-person self-insertion are rare, the use of such is common infan fiction, in which the reader is paired with a fictional character, often in an intimate setting.
TheDivine Comedy byDante Alighieri features the poet Dante himself as a character, visitingHell throughHeaven, where he meets people he does not like being punished, and his friends and famous historical heroes having eternal rest
InDon Quixote, byMiguel de Cervantes, the novelLa Galatea by Cervantes himself is mentioned among the books in Don Quixote's library; then, one of the characters adds "that Cervantes has been for many years a great friend of mine"[11]
In theRush Revere series of books, authored byRush Limbaugh, Limbaugh uses himself as the narrator, who is exploring various American historical settings and concepts and explaining them to readers
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