Overview
- Examines the history of the novel and the role economics has played
- Contributes to new economic criticism
- Examines canonical novels from Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Ayn Rand, and Don DeLillo
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Literature, Culture and Economics (PSLCE)
Access this book
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Other ways to access
About this book
Political Economy and the Novel: A Literary History of ‘Homo Economicus’ provides a transhistorical account of homo economicus (economic man), demonstrating this figure’s significance to economic theory and the Anglo-American novel over a 250-year period. Beginning with Adam Smith’s seminal texts – Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations – and Henry Fielding’s A History of Tom Jones, this book combines the methodologies of new historicism and new economic criticism to investigate the evolution of the homo economicus model as it traverses through Ricardian economics and Jane Austen’s Sanditon; J. S. Mill and Charles Dickens’ engagement with mid-Victorian dualities; Keynesianism and Mrs Dalloway’s exploration of post-war consumer impulses; the a/moralistic discourses of Friedrich von Hayek, and Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged; and finally the virtual crises of the twenty-first century financial market and DonDeLillo’s Cosmopolis. Through its sustained comparative analysis of literary and economic discourses, this book transforms our understanding of the genre of the novel and offers critical new understandings of literary value, cultural capital and the moral foundations of political economy.
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
- political economic writings
- literary networks
- homo economicus
- American novels
- American literature
- novel theory
- genre theory
- John Maynard Keynes
- economics in novels
- Adam Smith
- The Theory of Moral Sentiments
- The Wealth of Nations
- Henry Fielding
- A History of Tom Jones: a foundling
- Ricardian economics
- Jane Austen Sandition
- J.S. Mill
- Charles Dickens
- Don DeLillo
- Ayn Rand
Table of contents (8 chapters)
Reviews
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Sarah Comyn is Postdoctoral Fellow on the ERC-funded project SouthHem at University College Dublin, Ireland.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Political Economy and the Novel
Book Subtitle: A Literary History of "Homo Economicus"
Authors: Sarah Comyn
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Literature, Culture and Economics
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94325-1
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-94324-4Published: 24 October 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-06834-9Published: 22 December 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-94325-1Published: 04 October 2018
Series ISSN: 2946-5397
Series E-ISSN: 2946-5400
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XII, 283
Topics: Literary Theory, Literary History, Economic Policy