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Abstract: The article deals with the actual problem of creative subject in the field of literary postmodernism, which solves the problem of self-identification. The postmodern “fragmented” subject is in the situation of “I-searching” in the “self-collection”. The collection strategy is as “collection of one’s own self”. In the postmodern novel the genuine artistic creation is replaced by the collection process. A typical example of the postmodern artist subject is the character of the collector, who creates his subjectivity in the field of special forces stress. The postmodern novel about the artist-collector reflects on the processes and methods of the collecting by the creative subject of himself, describes the dramatic moment and dynamics of modern man’s search for new schemes of self-identification. The subject of the study is the character of a collector in a postmodern novel about the artist. The existence of the collector as a marginal artist (outsider, fanatic, cynic) at the limit of their strength and capabilities consists in the spiritual structure of the protagonist and in the story of the protagonist (his path of initiation). The examples are based on the postmodern German and Russian language respect novels about the collector. “Das Parfum” (1985) by Patrick Süskind, “Flughunde” (1995) by Marcel Bayer and “Petrushka Syndrome” (“Синдром Петрушки”, 2013) by Dina Rubina present the central character of the collector and different models of marginal artist. The study is focused on the creative chronotope and different collection patterns. The postmodern authors describe an alternative ontological model of the world, implemented in an unusual story of a collector “collecting himself” in unusual circumstances. The proposed methodology of considering the collector’s character and studying the strategies of collecting in the postmodern novel can be applied to other postmodern novels about the artist.