Performing economic thought : English drama and mercantile writing, 1600-1642 / Bradley D. Ryner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ryner, Bradley D., author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

Edinburgh critical studies in Renaissance culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English drama--17th century--History and criticism.

English drama.

Mercantile system in literature.

Economics in literature.

Commerce in literature.

Physical Description:

xi, 217 pages : illustrations, facsimiles ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, [2014]

Summary:

These original interpretations of Renaissance culture focus on literary texts in English and in a range of vernacular languages. They also deal with the reception and transformation of the Greco-Roman literary, political and intellectual heritage. This study examines representations of economic exchange in English plays and mercantile treatises written between the chartering of the English East India Company in 1600 and the closing of the public playhouses at the outset of the English Civil War in 1642. These were crucial decades during which economic thinkers re-examined how they conceptualised and depicted commerce as a system. The book examines the formal features of treatises and plays, especially those unique to the theatrical experience (e.g., the presence of props and actors' bodies and the position of the audience relative to the staged action) that allowed economic systems to be represented differently in the playhouse than in the printed treatise. The book argues that the representational techniques available to playwrights facilitated a more insightful exploration of economic systems than those available to economic writers. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Tables and Metaphors: Walter Mountfort's The Launching of the Mary 16

2 Overflowing Props: Philip Massinger's The Emperor of the East 50

3 Characterising Economics: Thomas Middleton and William Rowley's The Changeling 77

4 The Panoramic Stage: William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and Cymbeline 106

5 Stage-Managing Interpretation: Ben Jonson's The Staple of News 133

6 Generic Self-Reflexivity: Richard Brome's A Jovial Crew 166

7 The Performativity of Economic Models: Thomas Heywood's If You Know Not Me, You Know Nobody, Part II and Philip Massinger's The Picture 188.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780748684656

0748684654

OCLC:

869777502