Maximal Selves, Narrative Repression and Impossible Structures: Self-Narrative and the Challenge of Literature

Abstract The present article approaches the issue of self-narrative from the complex case of a “maximal self”. Conceived in contrast to the standard “minimal self”, the “maximal self” is marked by detailed verbal narration, multiple temporalities and multiple imaginary selves. The concept is developed and discussed through the complex case of self-narrative in the TV series Strappare Lungo I Bordi . After an outline of features of the “maximal self” (Sect. 1), I will work towards an account of the narrative effects of deploying the maximal self, such as “narrative repression”, where a very talkative narrator hides major issues of self-narrative in plain sight (Sect. 3), and “imaginary friends”, where imagined selves turn into dialogue partners that may well break through narrative repression (Sect. 5). In the final section, I will position the complexity of the maximal self in the contexts of research on self-narrative in philosophy and literary studies. The article contributes to debates around self-narratives, first, by expanding the conceptual repertoire of self-narratives with the notions of narrative repression and imaginary friends, and second, by showing how these concepts provide new ways for thinking about the links between narrators and emplotment in the process of self-narration.