In GIVING BIRTH TO SELF, the author, using the techniques of "thought-runs," meditates on Marquez's statement that "human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them to give birth to themselves. The focus in this essay is then on context and use, the "where" and the "how" of self. Where do representations of self, oneself and that of the other, typically occur in written texts and how does the author use self: how does it perform?