The focus of the doctoral dissertation is on the exteriority of the character in Italian literature between Decadentism and Modernism in the analyisis and research of the appearance, meaning and function of the exteriority in literacy works. These atre the titles: Gabriele d'Annunzzio's Il Piacere, Il trionfo della morte, L'innocente, Giovanni Episcopo, Le vergini delle rocce, Il Fuoco, Forse che sì, forse che no; Luigi Pirandello: L'esclusa, Il turno, Il fu Mattia Pascal, Suo marito, I vecchi e i giovani, Quaderni di Serafino Gubbio operatore, Uno, nessumo e centomila; Italo Svevo: Una vita, Senilità, Coscienza di Zeno and Aldo Palazzeschi: Il codice di Perelà, La Piramide, Le sorelle Materassi, I fratelli Cuccoli, Roma, Il doge, Stefanino, Aldo Palazzeschi: Il codice di Perelà, La Piramide, Le sorelle Materassi, E lasciatemi divertire, I fratelli Cuccoli, Roma, Il doge and Stefanino. The issue that this paper primarly deals with is the presentation of appearance and critical discourse on the topic in a broader context, and in addition to the physical characteristics of the material, the characteristics and peculiarities related to fashion and clothing are recorded in the set theoretical framework. A comprehensive description of the exterior as a relevant element in the poetics of the aforementioned authors at the transition from decadentism to modernism, two different cultural sensibilities, were explored (for example, for decadentism, in d'Annunzio's novels, exterior and clothing are understood almost as armor for social ascension, while in later authors, despite the great attention that modernists pay to design and fashion, they consider the suit and exterior to be a cage (for example in Pirandello). The amount and content of specific examples from the work indicate that the author has a great interest in the above-mentioned issue and consider it a relevant consequence of the cultural and social context in which the previously mentioned works were created. The analysis are accompanied by extensive notes and origin citations. In the central part of this paper, the basic cultural theoretical settings include Theory of fashion, The semiotics of fashion, The theory of culture and the sociology of fashion are stated and explained. The literature used in this pattern is based on books, Roland Barthes Il senso della moda from 2006, Patrizia Calefato Mass moda-Linguaggio e imagginario del corpo vestito from 2007, Giogia Calò and Domenico Scudero Moda e Arte from 2009, Gillo Dorfles Moda from 1997, Moda e modi iz 1979, Georg Simmel La moda and Piccola enciclopedia from 1996, Ugo Volli Contro la moda and Black modes. Il linguaggio del corpo e della moda from 1988, Daniela Baroncini La moda nella letteratura contemporanea from 2010, Georges Vigarello L’abito femminile. Una storia culturale dal medievo a oggi from 2018 and Teorija i kultura mode. Discipline, pristupi, interpretacije, Žarko Paić and Krešimir Purgar from 2018. Given that at the heart of the autor’s poetics is corporeality, a special contribution to interdisciplinary research in questioning the subject was marked by the thoughts of Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben. Also, based on the insight into the works of Carlo Crosato and Sandro Chignola, theoretical starting points are determinated that complement and prove each other. For example, Michel Foucault in Microfisica del potere discusses, among other things, the importance of the body as a cultural phenomenom inextricably women into social class within power relation. As part of the exterior presented as a mask that can be manipulated and controlled, it was necessery to expland the understanding in more details by analyising the essays of Giorgio Agamben What Is an Apparatus? From a metodological point of view, Agamben uses the method of archaeology of knowlege in analysing the concept of apparatus, focusing on the multidimensional space of comunication. It is the use of the term or concept of apparatus which means a device for consuption that engulfs our existences and is present in all situatations, form information and communication tehnology to mobile telephony and social networks. In doing so, Agamben discusses the issue of social conficts, with a particular focus on the relations between power and low. In conclusion, this paper adequately and troughly answers the research question about the exterior observed in the domain of visuals, culture, fashion but also in the context of social relations and interactions with them. The exteriority is a visual and social element whose descriptive semiotics reveals its double face as a fundamental feature.