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 themself into the story as a fictional character.^[1]

Forms

In 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.

Similar literary devices include a first-person narrator, an author surrogate, and a character somewhat based on the author, whether the author included it intentionally or not. Many characters have been described as unintentional self-insertions, implying that their author is unconsciously using them as an author surrogate.^[2]

"X-insert" or "reader-insert" fiction has the reader appear as a character in the story; their name is substituted with "you" or "y/n" ("your name").^[3]

Mindy Kaling has been accused of using self-insertion in her movie roles.^[4][5][6][7]

Criticism

Self-insertion has been criticised as a writing device as being unoriginal.^[8][9]

Examples

• Money by Martin Amis
• The Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut^[10][11]
• Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
• The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles^[12]
• 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.^[13]
• 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
• Randolph Carter in H.P. Lovecraft tales
• The title character of the Rush Revere series by Rush Limbaugh
• Bella Swan in the Twilight novel series by Stephenie Meyer
• Rayford Steele and Buck Williams in the Left Behind novel series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
• The title character of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
• Homestuck by Andrew Hussie
• JPod by Douglas Coupland
• The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah by Stephen King
• Handbook for Mortals by Lani Sarem
• A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
• The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq
• Frank Owen in The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell
• Robert Langdon in the Robert Langdon book series by Dan Brown
• John Barth in the Dunyazadiad segment of John Barth's novel Chimera.
• Rohan Kishibe in Diamond Is Unbreakable by Hirohiko Araki
• Louis in the Wayside School series by Louis Sachar
• Rudyard Kipling in The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling
• The Thin Clergyman in The Railway Series by The Rev. W. Awdry

See also

• Cameo appearance
• Self-parody
• Self-reference
• Mary Sue

References