Abstract
In this paper, I discuss Fleur Jaeggy's writings from her early narrative experiment Il dito in bocca (1968) to her latest short novel Proleterka (2001). Fascinated with the notion of identity formation as fluid subjectivity, Jaeggy creates imaginary existences in which time is fragmented in non-continuous segments, and personal identity is represented in the process of being molded and dissolved. Yet, the author fails to defy the notion of identity and its world of certainties and stability, for her characters, whose all-pervading selves take over the narration, suspend time in the actual moment of their storytelling, and their becoming is in fact a being once and for all. Jaeggy does not write and does not like to speak about herself, and her narrative is only vaguely autobiographical; however, by questioning the concept of identity, she voices the individual's resistance to any binding definition of his/her psychological complexity and freedom.
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