Literature and Capital

New
Hardcover
2018
$106.88

What is the value of literature? In this important new work, Thomas Docherty charts a new economic history of literary culture and its institutions in the modern age. From the literary patronage of the early modern period, through the colonial exploitation of the 18th and 19th centuries to the institutionalisation of literature in the neoliberal university of the 21st century, Literature and Capital explores the changing ways in which literary culture has both resisted and become complicit with exploitative economic notions of value. Drawing on the work of economic and political thinkers such as Thomas Piketty, Naomi Klein, Edward Said and Raymond Williams, the book includes readings of work by a wide range of canonical authors from Shakespeare, Donne and Swift to Tolstoy, Woolf and Ishiguro.

Synopsis

What is the value of literature? In this important new work, Thomas Docherty charts a new economic history of literary culture and its institutions in the modern age. From the literary patronage of the early modern period, through the colonial exploitation of the 18th and 19th centuries to the institutionalisation of literature in the neoliberal university of the 21st century, Literature and Capital explores the changing ways in which literary culture has both resisted and become complicit with exploitative economic notions of value. Drawing on the work of economic and political thinkers such as Thomas Piketty, Naomi Klein, Edward Said and Raymond Williams, the book includes readings of work by a wide range of canonical authors from Shakespeare, Donne and Swift to Tolstoy, Woolf and Ishiguro.

$106.88

Quantity

2 in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 280
Publisher: Bloomsbury 3PL
Published: 06 Sep 2018
ISBN 10: 1350064645
ISBN 13: 9781350064645
Book Overview: A landmark new economic history of literary culture and its institutions from the early modern period, through the age of imperialism, to 21st-century neoliberalism.

Media Reviews

A radical reappraisal of the ways in which literary study challenges and is challenged by the ascent of money. This is a work of panoptic precision, in which intellectual passion is matched by sound scholarly scruple. * Declan Kiberd, Donald and Marilyn Keough Professor of Irish Studies, University of Notre Dame, USA *
Literature and Capital is a wonderful wide-ranging and erudite study. At once tolerant and angry, and written with great perception and persuasion, it details with a powerful intelligence the relationships between literature, land, education, enquiry and the various cultural organisations of capital. Thomas Docherty is a critical provocateur for our times and this book is the kind of urgent and committed scholarship that the present requires. * Stuart Murray, Professor of Contemporary Literatures and Film, University of Leeds, UK *
An impassioned and cogent analysis of the entwining of literature and capital that continually impresses on account of its historical depth and critical vigilance. Above all, a compelling argument for why a radical study of literature is needed to engage with the multiple challenges of our times. * Michael Rossington, Professor of Romantic Literature, Newcastle University, UK *
This is a very important book in the backdrop of our contemporary thinking around literature, marketplace, survival, funds and capital. Through a deeply meshed intervention involving human, cultural, institutional and financial capital, Docherty has pulled off a stunning achievement where credit and literary creditilization and credibility have come into a formidable play. * Ranjan Ghosh, University of North Bengal, India *

Author Bio

Thomas Docherty is Professor of English at the University of Warwick, UK. He has published on most areas of English and comparative literature from the Renaissance to the present day. His previous books include After Theory (1996), The English Question (2008) and For the University (Bloomsbury, 2011).