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The theme of the poetic self-portrait is closely tied in with the problem of identifying the author in the body of his work, and unmasking the literary incarnation of his personality, its psychological and physical traits. Traditionally researchers have seen it as involving the complex problem of how far one can justifiably go in equating the author with the voices emanating from his text, whatever one choses to call them — lyrical hero, poetic persona, fictional ego, narrative mask or general lyrical subject.² For many researchers the extent of their affinity with the author remains a matter for speculation for, to date, we have found no reliable criteria for establishing the similarities and dissimilarities between the writing "I" and "I" in writing.³

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-22331-2_8

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