A Coincidence of Wants: The Novel and Neoclassical Economics (Literary Critic...

Description: A Coincidence of Wants: The Novel and Neoclassical Economics (Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory) [Hardcover] Lewis, Charles Product Overview 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. Read more Details Publisher ‏ : ‎ Routledge (November 10, 1999) Language ‏ : ‎ English Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 166 pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0815336489 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 88 Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.46 x 0.66 x 8.78 inches Best Sellers Rank: #11,261,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #3,656 in Economic Theory (Books) #3,808 in American Literature (Books) #8,372 in English Literature #3,656 in Economic Theory (Books) #3,808 in American Literature (Books) Stock Photos Please Note: All of our book listings use stock photos unless otherwise stated. Please read our descriptions for accurate conditions and editions, don't use the photos! Free Shipping We ship worldwide. We have multiple warehouses around the world, so please note the extended handling time on certain listings.

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