1st Edition

Economics as Literature

By William Henderson Copyright 1995
    200 Pages
    by Routledge

    200 Pages
    by Routledge

    A rich vein of economics writings which runs through the nineteenth century and beyond is now largely ignored because its authors were women or because they favoured literary over scientific forms. Economics as Literature re-examines some of the most interesting texts from within this tradition.
    The works considered include:
    *stories (eg by Maria Edgeworth and Harriet Martineau)
    *dialogues (eg by Jane Marcet and Thomas de Quincey)
    *'imaginative' writing (eg from Ruskin and Francis Edgeworth)
    *Keynes' General Theory which is locked within a nineteenth century 'tradition' of uniting science and art.

    1 Economics as literature: an introduction to ‘literary economics’ 2 Child’s play: Maria Edgeworth and economics education 3 Jane Marcet’s Conversations on Political Economy: a new interpretation 4 Harriet Martineau or ‘when political economy was popular’ 5 Thomas de Quincey reads David Ricardo 6 John Ruskin or the political economy of ‘soul’ 7 The problem of Edgeworth’s style 8 Style, persuasion and The General Theory

    Biography

    Willie Henderson is Senior Lecturer at the School of Continuing Studies, University of Birmingham. He works on African studies, and on education and language in economics.