‘Forse Succede Sempre Così Quando Si Scrive’: Self-Reflection Between Postmodernism and Feminism in Laura Pariani's Writing

Based on the analysis of an excerpt from the last chapter of L’uovo di Gertrudina (2003), this article investigates the forms, themes, and functions of self-reflection in Laura Pariani’s fiction. It looks at its meta-fictional features (illusion-breaking devices highlighting the constructed nature of fiction as an artifice: deconstructed frames, non-linear narrations, juxtaposition and intertwining of several stories, multiple focalisations, narrative embeddings, multilingualism, and intertextuality), its self-reflexive traits (reflection of the authorial self in the text, in a character with deliberate autobiographical resonances), and the meta-narrative aspects (the female narrator’s pondering on the act of narrating, its processes, its aims). It shows how Pariani uses textual and narrative strategies such as those included under the umbrella-term of self-reflection (typical of postmodern literature, although not exclusive to it), and how, at the same time, her literary project is marked by a strong ethical stance: a moral agenda in postmodern disguise. Irony is discarded, in favour of a renewed trust in the ethical dimension of the act of writing, in the role of the storyteller, and in an empathic narrative pact with the reader. Finally, Pariani’s ethics of self-reflection is discussed as an example of the common ground existing between postmodernism and feminisms, allied in the rejection of hegemonic master narratives and in the choice of plural, partial, and minor narratives.