Contrary to the prevailing methodological consensus, this article defines autopoiesis as a synonym of autocreation, or, more precisely, discursive identity construction. The latter refers to a literary ‘existential project’ which assumes that the sense of the self, or sameness, is the product of multiple, mostly discursive, interactions. They are the tex-ture of complex cultural processes which result in the determination by an individual of what he/she would like to be or what he/she would like be perceived. This construction of the self is in a state of ongoing contextualization within two distinct identity dis-courses, the discourse of individual uniqueness (founded on the sense of one’s body) and the discourse of collective participation (as defined by politics). The article argues that the two-dimensional contextualization is essentially historical and defines a broadly understood modernity. By examining the work of Gustave Flaubert the article shows how the oscillation between these two poles shapes the image of the modern writer created by Flaubert himself.