Hywel Dix is Principal Lecturer in English and Communication at Bournemouth University, UK. His previous books include Postmodern Fiction and the Break-Up of Britain (Bloomsbury, 2010).

In The Late-Career Novelist, Hywel Dix demonstrates that the figure of the author is well and truly alive and kicking in the twenty-first century. Through readings of the works of A. S. Byatt, Haruki Murakami, V. S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, and others, The Late-Career Novelist shows that studying a writer’s late work provides knowledge into more than just the career and self-retrospect of an individual author. Late career writings, often self-conscious and self-critical, offer insight into the figure of the author, the reciprocity or reading and writing, and the function of contemporary literature in the social world.

• 1. Introduction: From the Late to the Retrospective2. The Dialogic Self and the Vocation of the Storyteller3. Imaginary Authors of Real Books4. Intimate Paratexts5. Cultural Narratives and The Collective Library6. Feeding Fiction Forward: Anxieties of Influence7. Autofiction in Theory and Practice8. Conclusion: Advancing the Occupational PlotBibliographyIndex

Hywel Dix is Principal Lecturer in English and Communication at Bournemouth University, UK. His previous books include Postmodern Fiction and the Break-Up of Britain (Bloomsbury, 2010).

In The Late-Career Novelist, Hywel Dix demonstrates that the figure of the author is well and truly alive and kicking in the twenty-first century. Through readings of the works of A. S. Byatt, Haruki Murakami, V. S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, and others, The Late-Career Novelist shows that studying a writer’s late work provides knowledge into more than just the career and self-retrospect of an individual author. Late career writings, often self-conscious and self-critical, offer insight into the figure of the author, the reciprocity or reading and writing, and the function of contemporary literature in the social world.

• 1. Introduction: From the Late to the Retrospective2. The Dialogic Self and the Vocation of the Storyteller3. Imaginary Authors of Real Books4. Intimate Paratexts5. Cultural Narratives and The Collective Library6. Feeding Fiction Forward: Anxieties of Influence7. Autofiction in Theory and Practice8. Conclusion: Advancing the Occupational PlotBibliographyIndex

Hywel Dix is Principal Lecturer in English and Communication at Bournemouth University, UK. His previous books include Postmodern Fiction and the Break-Up of Britain (Bloomsbury, 2010).

In The Late-Career Novelist, Hywel Dix demonstrates that the figure of the author is well and truly alive and kicking in the twenty-first century. Through readings of the works of A. S. Byatt, Haruki Murakami, V. S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, and others, The Late-Career Novelist shows that studying a writer’s late work provides knowledge into more than just the career and self-retrospect of an individual author. Late career writings, often self-conscious and self-critical, offer insight into the figure of the author, the reciprocity or reading and writing, and the function of contemporary literature in the social world.

• 1. Introduction: From the Late to the Retrospective2. The Dialogic Self and the Vocation of the Storyteller3. Imaginary Authors of Real Books4. Intimate Paratexts5. Cultural Narratives and The Collective Library6. Feeding Fiction Forward: Anxieties of Influence7. Autofiction in Theory and Practice8. Conclusion: Advancing the Occupational PlotBibliographyIndex