Hamlet, in one of Shakespeare‘s most known writings, proposed a play
(inside the play), with the purpose of revealing his king‘s true ―self‖. But
how could fiction reveal reality? And what is t his ―reality‖ inside fiction
which engenders philosophical questions concerning one‘s ―self‖? In
contemporary literature we see examples of narratives who also insert,
among the virtual layers of the reading, not only one ―being‖ who questions
about his or her self, but many ―I‘s‖ who multiply, who are modified and
disappear in this textual net. In this study, we intend to investigate who are
these characters in Hamlet (1599-16010), in El Mal de Montano (2002), by
Enrique Vila-Matas, and in Invisible (2009), by Paul Auster. Moreover, we
question what these layers or textual levels could be and what effect s they
produce inside these narratives. By evoking Hamlet, we attempt to take to
stage the contemporary writing.
