Ç. Akdere et Chr. Baron, Economics and Literature, A Comparative and Interdisciplinary Approach

Compte rendu publié dans le dossier critique d'Acta fabula "Inventer l'économie" (Octobre 2022, Vol. 23, n° 8) : "Enjeux théoriques de la monnaie romanesque" par Dorothée Picon.

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Since the Middle Ages, literature has portrayed the economic world in poetry, drama, stories and novels. The complexity of human realities highlights crucial aspects of the economy. The nexus linking characters to their economic environment is central in a new genre, the "economic novel", that puts forth economic choices and events to narrate social behavior, individual desires, and even non-economic decisions. For many authors, literary narration also offers a means to express critical viewpoints about economic development, for example in regards to its ecological or social ramifications.

Conflicts of economic interest have social, political and moral causes and consequences. This book shows how economic and literary texts deal with similar subjects, and explores the ways in which economic ideas and metaphors shape literary texts, focusing on the analogies between economic theories and narrative structure in literature and drama. This volume also suggests that connecting literature and economics can help us find a common language to voice new, critical perspectives on crises and social change.

Written by an impressive array of experts in their fields, Economics and Literature is an important read for those who study history of economic thought, economic theory and philosophy, as well as literary and critical theory.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction and Overview

ÇINLA AKDERE AND CHRISTINE BARON AND BRUNA INGRAO

Part I

Passions and Interest: A Comparative Study of Economic Texts and Literary Masterpieces

2 Narratives of passions and finance in the 19^th century

BRUNA INGRAO

3 The passions and the interests: the Sentimental Education of Gustave Flaubert

ALPHONSO SANCHEZ

4 Literature and Political Economy: Saint-Simon and Jean-Baptiste Say’s writings

GILLES JACOUD

5 Which Economic Agent Does Robinson Crusoe Represent?

CLAIRE PIGNOL

6 Political Economy and utilitarianism in Dickens' Hard Times

NATHALIE SIGOT AND ÇINLA AKDERE

PART II

Economic Ideas and Metaphors in Literature: An Interdisciplinary Approach

7 Concordances and dissidences between economy and literature

JEAN-JOSEPH GOUX

8 Economics and monetary imagination in André Gide's The Counterfeiters

ÇINLA AKDERE AND　CHRISTINE BARON

9 ‘I Always Wanted to Have Earned My First Dollar but I Never Had’: Gertrude Stein and Money

LAURA E. B. KEY

10 Georges Perec’s Les Choses as the Privileged Domain of Contemporary Hunter-Gatherers

EYÜP ÖZVEREN

PART III

Facing change: reflections of economic development and crises in historical and literary texts　

11 Transforming Economic and Social Relations: Modern Economy in Novels of Uşaklıgil

REYHAN TUTUMLU SERDAR AND ALI SERDAR

12 Mechanization Experience in Agriculture in Turkey: The Pomegranate on the Knoll

SELİN SEÇİL AKIN AND IŞIL ŞİRİN SELÇUK

13 An Intertextual Analysis of the Village Novels by Village Institute Graduates: Socio-economic Scenes of the Turkish Village between 1950 and 1980

ESRA ELİF NARTOK

14 Theatre in Crisis, Theatre of Crisis: Economics and Contemporary Dram