Abstract

The essay deals with postmodern rewritings of the myth of Narcissus. The texts analyzed - Barth's "Lost in the Funhouse", Ransmayr's "Die letzte Welt" and Shakar's "City in Love" - propose different declensions of the ancient myth, which develop around common practices and themes peculiar to a particular type of postmodern fiction, namely metafiction, intertextual play, alienation and fragmentation of the self. The aim of the essay is to highlight how the postmodern rereading of the myth of Narcissus meets specific contemporary expressive and symbolic needs.