Finance and Fictionality in the Early Eighteenth Century : Accounting for Defoe / Sandra Sherman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sherman, Sandra, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economics in literature.

Finance in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (236 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

Digitally printed 1st pbk. version.

Other Title:

Finance & Fictionality in the Early Eighteenth Century

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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 epitomised the market's capacity to unsettle discourse, demanding and evading 'honesty' at the same time. Defoe's œuvre, straddling both finance and literature, theorizes the disturbance of market discourse, elaborating strategies by which an author can remain in the market, perpetrating fiction while avoiding responsibility for doing so.

Contents:

1. Credit and its discontents: the credit/fiction homology

2. Defoe and fictionality

3. Credit and honesty in The Compleat English Tradesman

4. Fictions of stability

5. Lady Credit's reprise: Roxana.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Feb 2026).

Includes bibliographical references (pages 179-220) and index.

ISBN:

0-511-58221-8

0-511-00100-2