Bob Dylan has constantly reinvented the persona known as "Bob Dylan," renewing the performance possibilities inherent in his songs, from acoustic folk, to electric rock and a late, hybrid style which even hints at so-called world music and Latin American tones. Then in 2016, his achievements outside of performance - as a songwriter - were acknowledged when he was awarded the Nobel Literature Prize. Dylan has never ceased to broaden the range of his creative identity, taking in painting, film, acting and prose writing, as well as advertising and even own-brand commercial production. The book highlights how Dylan has brought his persona(e) to different art forms and cultural arenas, and how they in turn have also created these personae. This volume consists of multidisciplinary essays written by cultural historians, musicologists, literary academics and film experts, including contributions by critics Christopher Ricks and Nina Goss. Together, the essays reveal Dylan's continuing artistic development and self-fashioning, as well as the making of a certain legitimized Dylan through critical and public recognition in the new millennium.

List of FiguresList of TablesEditorsContributorsAcknowledgementsIntroduction - Some Variations On Late DylanAdrian Grafe, Université d'Artois, FrancePart 1: Honest with Me: Late Dylan's Performing Personae1. 'I Made It So Easy for You to Follow Me': A Case for Dylan's Revisionist Art (2012)Nina Goss, Fordham University, New York, USA2. Masked, Anonymized and Chronicled: Dylan's Fatal Auto-Mythos for the New MillenniumJim Salvucci, Union College, Kentucky, USA 3. Performativity, Subversion and Mask-ulinity: Dylan On Screen, Dylan As ScreenSara Martínez, Lancaster University, UK 4. No Direction Home: When Dylan Does Look BackCharles Bonnot, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3, France 5. Dylan Does Adverts. Surely Not? Surely?Andrew McKeown, University of Poitiers, France 6. Bringing the Margin to the Centre: Dylan's Visible RepublicErin C. Callahan, San Jacinto College, Houston, USA 7. Creation and Re-creation in Dylan's Performances of 'Blowin' in the Wind' (1963-2016)Julie Mansion-Vaquié, Université Nice Sophia Antipolis, France 8. 'Behind Every Beautiful Thing There's Been Some Kind of Pain': Melancholia in Dylan's Songs and PaintingsAnne-Marie Mai, Syddansk Universitet, Denmark Part 2: Roll on Bob: Late Dylan in Text and Tribute 9. 'A-Journeying Over the Shadow and the Rain': Dylan's Late Style(s)Jean Du Verger,ENSMM Institute of Engineering, Besançon, France 10. 'The Last Outback at the World's End': Dylan's Sense of an Album's EndingM. Cooper Harriss, Indiana University, USA 11. 'No Success Like Failure'? Dylan's Awards, from Princeton to the NobelDenis Feignier, France 12. 'How Could It Be Any Other Way?' Dylan's Editorial Decisions in The Lyrics: 1961-2012Simon McAslan, Vanier College, Montreal, Canada 13. Dylan's ResourcesChristopher Ricks, Boston University, USA 14. Dylan Nobelized? Dylan Ricksified?Adrian Grafe, Université d'Artois, FranceCoda: Late and Timely, Rough and Ready: A Review of Rough and Rowdy WaysAdrian Grafe, Université d'Artois, France, and Andrew McKeown, University of Poitiers, France Index