We think of economic theory as a scientific speciality accessible only to experts, but Victorian writers commented on economic subjects with great interest. Gordon Bigelow focuses on novelists Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell and compares their work with commentaries on the Irish famine (1845-1852). Bigelow argues that at this moment of crisis the rise of economics depended substantially on concepts developed in literature. These works all criticized the systematized approach to economic life that the prevailing political economy proposed. Gradually the romantic views of human subjectivity, described in the novels, provided the foundation for a new theory of capitalism based on the desires of the individual consumer. Bigelow's argument stands out by showing how the discussion of capitalism in these works had significant influence not just on public opinion, but on the rise of economic theory itself.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"...a clearly argued work which brings the industrial novels of Dickens and Gaskell into dialogue with contemporary theories of political economy. The value of Bigelow's book lies primarily in his demonstration of his thesis through a meticulous examination of the language of economic theorists." Kate Flint, Studies in English Literature "In 1884, Arnold Toynbee described the debate between advocates of culture and political economy as "a bitter argument between economists and human beings." Gordon Bigelow's excellent study traces the result of this argument, analyzing the transformation of economics in the nineteenth century, from being accepted as a social discourse integral to politics and literature to being rejected as a cultural pariah and perpetrator of genocide to being relegated to scientific objectivity in the 1870s to cleanse economics of political associations linking it to catastrophic events such as the Great Famine." Working, Melissa Fegan, University College Chester "Powerful." EH-NET
Reihe
Sprache
Verlagsort
Zielgruppe
Maße
Höhe: 235 mm
Breite: 157 mm
Dicke: 19 mm
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ISBN-13
978-0-521-82848-2 (9780521828482)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
Gordon Bigelow is Assistant Professor of English at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. His work has appeared in the journals ELH and New Orleans Review and in the volume Reclaiming Gender: Transgressive Identities in 19th-century Ireland (1999).
Autor*in
Rhodes College, Memphis
Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part I. Origin Stories and Political Economy, 1740-1870: 1. History as abstraction; 2. Value as signification; Part II. Producing the Consumer: 3. Market indicators: banking and housekeeping in Bleak House; 4. Esoteric solutions: Ireland and the colonial critique of political economy; 5. Toward a social theory of wealth: three novels by Elizabeth Gaskell; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.
