A Coincidence of Wants: The Novel and Neoclassical EconomicsRoutledge, 16.07.2014 г. - 166 страници This interdisciplinary study examines four major British and American novels in view of key concepts from the mainstream tradition of neoclassical economics. Studies of the novel widely address its connections to capitalism, yet literary critics and theorists rarely make reference to neoclassical perspectives, which have held a key position in the formal analysis of the marketplace for over a century. Lewis argues that this overlooked area of economic thought, with its emphasis on subjective value, individual agency, and utility maximization, points to a previously unrecognized and important coincidence of wants between economic and novelistic discourse. In each of the four readings, Lewis uses a single economic problem from neoclassical theory as a model for interpreting novelistic form and content as economic configurations. Topics include narrative deferral, detour, and return as a performance of capital formation and economic development in Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe; the emergence of the creative, risk-taking entrepreneur in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; the representation of money in the romantic realization of trade in Herman Melville's Moby Dick; and a consumer utility theory of naturalist desire and indifference in Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie. Underscoring how neoclassical theory variously elaborates on and departs from other economic approaches and periods, the author also addresses the limitations of, and the possibilities of profitable exchange with, other critical frameworks for understanding literal and symbolic economies in narrative fiction more broadly. |
Други издания - Преглед на всички
Често срещани думи и фрази
Ahab analysis argues aspects attempts begins capital capitalist Carrie Chapter claims classical coincidence colonial concepts configuration connection consumer consumption critics Crusoe's delay describes desire determined detour difference discourse discussion distinction domestic doubloon Dreiser's economic economists effect enterprise entire entrepreneur example exchange explore fiction figurations formation Frankenstein function gold historical identity important indifference individual innovative interest interpretations involving Ishmael island journal kind labor linguistics linked literary look mainstream Marxist material means mercantilist monetary monster Moreover narrative natural neoclassical noted novel novelistic objects political economy position possible present production question realization reference reflected relation rendered representation represented Robinson Crusoe role romantic sense ship signifies similar Similarly Sister Carrie Smith social story structural suggests supply takes tend theory thing tion trade turn utility variously Victor wants wealth whale