A novel interpretation of the self-reflexive novel as a gendering form. 

Rossoni brings the work of four renowned contemporary authors—J.M. Coetzee, Milan Kundera, Philip Roth, and Mario Vargas Llosa—into an unexpected dialogue to address the inscription of heterosexual masculinity into the Western literary legacy and how masculinity is refashioned in contemporary self-reflexive novels. Their oeuvres are considered together for the first time, while also being positioned within the European literary tradition inaugurated by Don Quixote and continued by authors like Gustave Flaubert, Franz Kafka, and Ezra Pound. Heterosexual Masculinities evaluates Coetzee, Kundera, Roth, and Vargas Llosa’s novels in light of critical contributions in literary masculinity studies that highlight men’s emotional illiteracy and struggle to develop a language for self-reflection.