Political Economy and the Novel: A Literary History of "Homo Economicus" (Palgrave Studies in Literature, Culture and Economics)

__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 Don DeLillo’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. Dedication 6 Acknowledgements 7 Contents 10 Chapter 1: Introduction 12 Value and Representation 14 The Character of Homo Economicus 16 The Empathic Imagination 21 The Narrative of Homo Economicus 23 Chapter 2: The Contested Birth of Homo Economicus 39 The Crisis of Value and the Literary Discourse 46 The Critical Enclosure of the Text 57 The Division of Labour and Speculative Rhetoric 62 Self-improvement and the Impartial Spectator 65 Chapter 3: The Speculative World of Sanditon 72 The Text and the Textual Place 75 Imagined Economies, Imagined Disorders 77 Ricardo’s Theory of Rent and Modern Sanditon 79 The Comparative Value of Austen and Ricardo 85 Chapter 4: A Marginal Life in Great Expectations 102 The Optative Mood: Residues of a Past Life 104 A Parvenu Civilisation 114 The Spectral Presence of Homo Economicus 123 Chapter 5: Woolf, Keynes, and the Compulsion to Consume 142 The Specificity of the General 147 Historians of Genre 157 Fragments of Empire 162 The (In)consumable and Inconsolable 169 Chapter 6: The Neoliberal Ideologue 182 The Political Backdrop to an Economic Revolution 184 Moral Equilibrium 191 Contemporary Randian Impulses 204 Chapter 7: The Asymmetric Prostate: Symptoms of a Failed Technocrat in Cosmopolis 218 The Ascent of Information Technology 223 Zeptoseconds and Reading Economic Data 230 Value and Authenticity 240 Chapter 8: Coda 257 Selected Bibliography 263 Primary Texts 263 Secondary Texts 267 Index 280 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 Don DeLillo’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. This book 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', the 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 Don DeLillo?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 Front Matter ....Pages i-xii Introduction (Sarah Comyn)....Pages 1-27 The Contested Birth of Homo Economicus (Sarah Comyn)....Pages 29-61 The Speculative World of Sanditon (Sarah Comyn)....Pages 63-92 A Marginal Life in Great Expectations (Sarah Comyn)....Pages 93-132 Woolf, Keynes, and the Compulsion to Consume (Sarah Comyn)....Pages 133-172 The Neoliberal Ideologue (Sarah Comyn)....Pages 173-208 The Asymmetric Prostate: Symptoms of a Failed Technocrat in Cosmopolis (Sarah Comyn)....Pages 209-247 Coda (Sarah Comyn)....Pages 249-254 Back Matter ....Pages 255-283