Deficits and desires
Subtitle: economics and sexuality in twentieth-century literature
By: Michael Tratner.
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Stanford, Calif
Language: eng
Number of pages: 238
Subjects: American literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism; Consumption (Economics) in literature; Economics and literature -- English-speaking countries; English literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism; Economics in literature; Desire in literature; Sex in literature
Description: "This book examines the effects on literary works of a little-noted economic development in the early twentieth century: individuals and governments alike began to regard going into debt as a normal and even valuable part of life. The author also shows, surprisingly, that the economic changes normalizing debt paralleled and intersected with changes in sexual discourse.".

"In Keynesian economics and consumerism, governments and individuals were actually encouraged to borrow and to spend more in order to increase demand and keep money circulating. In twentieth-century sexual treatises, people were similarly encouraged to indulge their desires, as pent-up states were considered as deleterious to the physical body as they were to the economic.".

"In this book, the author traces these social transformations by examining twentieth-century literary works and films that are structured around contrasts between repressive and expansive forms of economics and sexuality."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [223]-234) and index.