Literature Incorporated

The Cultural Unconscious of the Business Corporation, 1650-1850

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, British, American
Cover of the book Literature Incorporated by John O'Brien, University of Chicago Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: John O'Brien ISBN: 9780226291260
Publisher: University of Chicago Press Publication: December 29, 2015
Imprint: University of Chicago Press Language: English
Author: John O'Brien
ISBN: 9780226291260
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication: December 29, 2015
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Language: English

Long before Citizens United and modern debates over corporations as people, such organizations already stood between the public and private as both vehicles for commerce and imaginative constructs based on groups of individuals. In this book, John O’Brien explores how this relationship played out in economics and literature, two fields that gained prominence in the same era.

Examining British and American essays, poems, novels, and stories from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries, O’Brien pursues the idea of incorporation as a trope discernible in a wide range of texts. Key authors include John Locke, Eliza Haywood, Harriet Martineau, and Edgar Allan Poe, and each chapter is oriented around a type of corporation reflected in their works, such as insurance companies or banks. In exploring issues such as whether sentimental interest is the same as economic interest, these works bear witness to capitalism’s effect on history and human labor, desire, and memory. This period’s imaginative writing, O’Brien argues, is where the unconscious of that process left its mark. By revealing the intricate ties between literary models and economic concepts, Literature Incorporated shows us how the business corporation has shaped our understanding of our social world and ourselves.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Long before Citizens United and modern debates over corporations as people, such organizations already stood between the public and private as both vehicles for commerce and imaginative constructs based on groups of individuals. In this book, John O’Brien explores how this relationship played out in economics and literature, two fields that gained prominence in the same era.

Examining British and American essays, poems, novels, and stories from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries, O’Brien pursues the idea of incorporation as a trope discernible in a wide range of texts. Key authors include John Locke, Eliza Haywood, Harriet Martineau, and Edgar Allan Poe, and each chapter is oriented around a type of corporation reflected in their works, such as insurance companies or banks. In exploring issues such as whether sentimental interest is the same as economic interest, these works bear witness to capitalism’s effect on history and human labor, desire, and memory. This period’s imaginative writing, O’Brien argues, is where the unconscious of that process left its mark. By revealing the intricate ties between literary models and economic concepts, Literature Incorporated shows us how the business corporation has shaped our understanding of our social world and ourselves.

More books from University of Chicago Press

Cover of the book Strained Relations by John O'Brien
Cover of the book Excommunication by John O'Brien
Cover of the book A Historical Atlas of Tibet by John O'Brien
Cover of the book A Fistful of Shells by John O'Brien
Cover of the book Kurt Schwitters by John O'Brien
Cover of the book Difficult Reputations by John O'Brien
Cover of the book Elements of Acoustic Phonetics by John O'Brien
Cover of the book Wittgenstein and Modernism by John O'Brien
Cover of the book How Animals Grieve by John O'Brien
Cover of the book Stitching the West Back Together by John O'Brien
Cover of the book The Trials of Mrs. K. by John O'Brien
Cover of the book Mathematical Physics by John O'Brien
Cover of the book Political Theology by John O'Brien
Cover of the book Sex, Drugs, and Sea Slime by John O'Brien
Cover of the book In the Watches of the Night by John O'Brien
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy