The Economy of Form

The essays in this special issue cover how novels influence economic theories, at once challenging the theories of a novel’s time and making those theories available to an expanding reading public. Positing that novels are forms of economic theory in their own right, the authors examine novels as texts that reveal the misbegotten assumptions, magical thinking, and figurative language that economic theories often rely on. The authors contend, further, that as novels use fiction to counter the fictional (or “untheorized”) aspects of economic theory, they demonstrate how capitalism remodels the world, enabling readers to imagine life within it.

Contributors: Nancy Armstrong, Aviva Briefel, Sarah Comyn, Robert Dainotto, Amanpal Garcha, Marius Hentea, Sarah Kimmet, Scott R. Mackenzie, Michael McGurk, Christine Okoth, Jacob Soule, and Ryan Trimm