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About this book
The 'invisible hand', Adam Smith's metaphor for the morality of capitalism, is explored in this text as being far more subtle and intricate than is usually understood, with many British realist fiction writers (Austen, Dickens, Gaskell, Eliot) having absorbed his model of ironic causality in complex societies and turned it to their own purposes.
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Table of contents (7 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Introduction: Capitalist Moral Philosophy, Narrative Technology, and the Boundaries of the Nation-State
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Reading Adam Smith
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Front Matter
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Early Nineteenth-Century Novels and Invisible Hand Social Theory
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Front Matter
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Conclusion: Realist Capitalism, Gothic Capitalism
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Back Matter
Reviews
'This book makes a strong case for the humanities through its interdisciplinary study of political economy in the nineteenth century...Courtemanche's theoretical framework is elegant and compelling. With the aid of Smith's metaphor, she contraposes a worm's-eye view with a bird's-eye view, and then uses this contraposed pair to represent the worker and the landowner, the economist and the literary philosopher, the literary character and the narrator.' - Leeann Hunter, New Books on Literature 19
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
ELEANOR COURTEMANCHE Assistant Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. She has also taught at Colby College, Macalester College, Claremont McKenna College, and Carleton College. In addition to Victorian studies, her research interests include German fiction, narrative theory, and the intersection between industry and aesthetics.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The 'Invisible Hand' and British Fiction, 1818-1860
Book Subtitle: Adam Smith, Political Economy, and the Genre of Realism
Authors: Eleanor Courtemanche
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230304987
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature Collection, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2011
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-230-29078-5Published: 12 April 2011
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-33158-1Published: 01 January 2011
eBook ISBN: 978-0-230-30498-7Published: 12 April 2011
Series ISSN: 2634-6494
Series E-ISSN: 2634-6508
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 251
Topics: British and Irish Literature, Literary Theory, Cultural Theory, Nineteenth-Century Literature, Fiction, Economic Theory/Quantitative Economics/Mathematical Methods