Finance and fictionality in the early eighteenth century
Subtitle: accounting for Defoe
By: Sandra Sherman.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Cambridge [England]; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 222
Subjects: Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731 -- Knowledge -- Economics.; Economics -- England -- History -- 18th century.; Finance -- England -- History -- 18th century.; Economics in literature.; Finance in literature.; Fiction -- Technique.
Description: In the early eighteenth century, the increasing dependence of society on financial credit provoked widespread anxiety. The texts of credit - stock certificates, IOUs, bills of exchange - were denominated as potential "fictions," while the potential fictionality of other texts was measured in terms of the "credit" they deserved. Sandra Sherman argues that in this environment finance is like fiction, employing the same tropes.

She goes on to show how the work of Daniel Defoe epitomized the market's capacity to unsettle discourse, demanding and evading "honesty" at the same time. Defoe's oeuvre, straddling both finance and literature, theorizes the unsettlement of market discourse, elaborating strategies by which an author can remain in the market, perpetrating fiction while avoiding responsibility for doing so.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-220) and index.