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The retrospective stage: Late career fiction and authorial self-renewal

Authors: Dix, H.

Pages: 57-73

DOI: 10.1057/9781137478504

Source: Scopus

‘The Retrospective Stage: Late Career Fiction and Authorial Self-renewal’

Authors: Dix, H.

Editors: Davidson, G. and Evans, N.

Pages: 57-76

Publisher: Palgrave

Place of Publication: Basingstoke

ISBN: 9781137478504

Abstract:

The late stage of an author’s career is often burdened with the connotations of old age or expectations of a summative masterpiece. Dix offers a much needed rethinking of literary career trajectories, arguing that the late stage also describes writers producing work in the shadow of significant past success. Through a close reading of V.S. Naipaul’s Magic Seeds (2004) and Graham Swift’s Wish You Were Here (2011), Dix shows how late career fiction is often characterized by critical self examination and renewal, as authors use their later writings to revisit and reimagine the themes of the early works for which they were celebrated.

Source: Manual