The genre of autobiography today is profoundly changing, situating itself increasingly in between the eye-witness account, the diary and the novel. What the contribution offers is a look to this peculiar form of textuality, which I call “self-writing”, in seeing if it is possible to read this hybridization as a cultural manifestation of modernity, representative of a particular way of constructing the post-traumatic past, both personally and collectively. The examples considered are: DAVE EGGERS, What is the What. The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, (2006) GUNTER GRASS, Peeling the Onion (2006) CHRISTA WOLF, One Day a Year, 1960-2000 (2003)