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Literature and the Economics of Liberty: Spontaneous Order in Culture
The economic interpretation of literature is dominated by ideas derived from Marxism — ideas that demonize the market as the enemy of all that is good.
Rather than merely attack this view, this book, edited by well-known literary critics Paul Cantor (University of Virginia) and Stephen Cox (University of California, San Diego) turns the prevailing paradigm upside down — criticism (and a theory of criticism) from a pro-market point of view.
For free-market advocates, it means the discovery of a completely new area of friends in literature, friends that we didn't know we had, people like Willa Cather for example. Chapter after chapter map this out and prove it with detailed analytics and highly sophisticated, yet readable, criticism of the works in question.
The book further argues that literature is one of the most powerful reflections of humanity's freedom, spontaneity, and creativity. Great works of literature buck the trend and break the mold. No one, not even their authors, can predict where they will come from or what form they will take. They may at first appear chaotic because they violate established literary norms, and only time and greater familiarity reveals the inner logic of their form. Perpetually open-ended in its formal possibilities, literature often celebrates the open-ended nature of human life in general.
Novels, for example, are at their best when they capture the complexity and unpredictability of human behavior, the refusal of human beings to do what conventional logic dictates. We have statistics to tell us what human beings are likely to do en masse; we need literature to chronicle what individuals actually do in the concrete circumstances that constitute their real lives.
Human beings are free and literature mirrors that freedom. Literary critics — particularly those influenced by Marxism — often turn texts and the characters they represent into predictable products of their environments. They view literature as the product of determinate economic and social circumstances, and authors as captives of class consciousness. With its economic determinism, Marxism views all human activity as following general laws and hence as predictable. Marxian critics typically view literature as the product of determinate economic and social circumstances, and authors as captives of class consciousness.
This book pursues economic interpretations of literature while respecting the freedom and creativity of authors. To do so, it draws upon a form of economics — the Austrian School — that places freedom and creativity at the center of its understanding of human action. Austrian economists such as Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek deny that human behavior is predictable, not just in practice, but more fundamentally in theory. They view the realm of economics as radically uncertain, and understand economic activity as "creative destruction," a never-ending process of making and unmaking modes of production that is the mirror image of artistic activity.
At the heart of Austrian economics is the concept of "spontaneous order." What appears to be chaotic in the social interaction of vast numbers of individuals in the marketplace in fact reflects a deeper order, what Adam Smith calls "the invisible hand." The free market produces more rational results than any form of central planning because markets use self-correcting mechanisms to adapt to perpetually changing economic conditions. This book explores the idea that spontaneous order is the concept that can bridge the economic and the cultural realms. Austrian economics and literature deal with the same world — the concrete human world of open-ended and infinite possibility.
Rather than merely attack this view, this book, edited by well-known literary critics Paul Cantor (University of Virginia) and Stephen Cox (University of California, San Diego) turns the prevailing paradigm upside down — criticism (and a theory of criticism) from a pro-market point of view.
For free-market advocates, it means the discovery of a completely new area of friends in literature, friends that we didn't know we had, people like Willa Cather for example. Chapter after chapter map this out and prove it with detailed analytics and highly sophisticated, yet readable, criticism of the works in question.
The book further argues that literature is one of the most powerful reflections of humanity's freedom, spontaneity, and creativity. Great works of literature buck the trend and break the mold. No one, not even their authors, can predict where they will come from or what form they will take. They may at first appear chaotic because they violate established literary norms, and only time and greater familiarity reveals the inner logic of their form. Perpetually open-ended in its formal possibilities, literature often celebrates the open-ended nature of human life in general.
Novels, for example, are at their best when they capture the complexity and unpredictability of human behavior, the refusal of human beings to do what conventional logic dictates. We have statistics to tell us what human beings are likely to do en masse; we need literature to chronicle what individuals actually do in the concrete circumstances that constitute their real lives.
Human beings are free and literature mirrors that freedom. Literary critics — particularly those influenced by Marxism — often turn texts and the characters they represent into predictable products of their environments. They view literature as the product of determinate economic and social circumstances, and authors as captives of class consciousness. With its economic determinism, Marxism views all human activity as following general laws and hence as predictable. Marxian critics typically view literature as the product of determinate economic and social circumstances, and authors as captives of class consciousness.
This book pursues economic interpretations of literature while respecting the freedom and creativity of authors. To do so, it draws upon a form of economics — the Austrian School — that places freedom and creativity at the center of its understanding of human action. Austrian economists such as Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek deny that human behavior is predictable, not just in practice, but more fundamentally in theory. They view the realm of economics as radically uncertain, and understand economic activity as "creative destruction," a never-ending process of making and unmaking modes of production that is the mirror image of artistic activity.
At the heart of Austrian economics is the concept of "spontaneous order." What appears to be chaotic in the social interaction of vast numbers of individuals in the marketplace in fact reflects a deeper order, what Adam Smith calls "the invisible hand." The free market produces more rational results than any form of central planning because markets use self-correcting mechanisms to adapt to perpetually changing economic conditions. This book explores the idea that spontaneous order is the concept that can bridge the economic and the cultural realms. Austrian economics and literature deal with the same world — the concrete human world of open-ended and infinite possibility.
530 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 28, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 20, 2022
2021-09-12 I finished this a few days ago. MARVELOUS BOOK.
For people into great literature who are open to seeing economic points of view.
For Marxists who are open to alternative views on Marxist analysis.
For economists who are open to great literature.
For those seeking a better understanding of how society actually works.
The authors are all literature professors, but who also know their economics very well, especially insights from the Austrian economics school of thought, very different from and much more realistic than mainstream economics, let alone Marxist, Keynesian or even Monetarist economics.
Every one of the essays was EXCELLENT, except the one on Walt Whitman, which left me unconvinced of the author's thesis or even his understanding of Austrian economics, in particular, the insights of Mises. His thesis dealt primarily with Hayek's Spontaneous Order idea, which is OK, but the lack of rigor or even import of this idea within Whitman's one work that was cited, let alone his most famous work, Leaves of Grass, left me cold.
But if any of the following works are of interest to you, DON'T miss this book:
Cervantes' Don Quixote
Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair (as well as other works by Jonson!)
Percy Shelly
HG Wells' Invisible Man (as well as some of his other works and general philosophy/goals)
Willa Cather's O Pioneers (as well as some of her other works)
Joseph Conrad
Ben Okri
Fantastic stuff.
I hope to add some quotations later to give you a better flavor for this great book.
For people into great literature who are open to seeing economic points of view.
For Marxists who are open to alternative views on Marxist analysis.
For economists who are open to great literature.
For those seeking a better understanding of how society actually works.
The authors are all literature professors, but who also know their economics very well, especially insights from the Austrian economics school of thought, very different from and much more realistic than mainstream economics, let alone Marxist, Keynesian or even Monetarist economics.
Every one of the essays was EXCELLENT, except the one on Walt Whitman, which left me unconvinced of the author's thesis or even his understanding of Austrian economics, in particular, the insights of Mises. His thesis dealt primarily with Hayek's Spontaneous Order idea, which is OK, but the lack of rigor or even import of this idea within Whitman's one work that was cited, let alone his most famous work, Leaves of Grass, left me cold.
But if any of the following works are of interest to you, DON'T miss this book:
Cervantes' Don Quixote
Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair (as well as other works by Jonson!)
Percy Shelly
HG Wells' Invisible Man (as well as some of his other works and general philosophy/goals)
Willa Cather's O Pioneers (as well as some of her other works)
Joseph Conrad
Ben Okri
Fantastic stuff.
I hope to add some quotations later to give you a better flavor for this great book.
November 17, 2021
با اینکه خیلی از آثاری که نویسنده به بررسی اون ها پرداخته بود رو نخونده بودم ولی بازم کتاب خوبی بود و نقدهایی که نویسنده به سوسیالیسم میکرد قابل تامل بود
September 21, 2020
Definitely worth reading. The way the authors break down literature is so refreshing!
October 23, 2012
An excellent, excellent collection of essays representing a first assault on Marxist literary orthodoxy, Literature and the Economics of Liberty examines how economics suffuses great works of literature that are not often thought of as economic, and also presents compelling, radical reinterpretations of texts that were considered Marxist-leaning in the past. The free market perspective is refreshing and, in a few cases, downright invigorating. The fact that it's all from the perspective of Austrian economics does no harm, as I don't think anarchism is mentioned even once in the book.
The first essay looks not within literature, but at literature itself, to demonstrate how the 19th century serial novel, a form that arose from the free operation of the marketplace, influenced and improved writers at a micro and a macro level, letting authors respond to their audiences before a work was complete, and letting some, including Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, attempt a new type of novel completely, one without any plan, which formed itself in the writing and, due to coming out in instalments, could not undo in a rewrite what was already done.
Other essays deal with Don Quixote, Willa Cather, Thomas Mann, and Ben Okri, and virtually every one of them inspired me to want to read the works they dealt with, or at least the authors. (Proof: I'm currently [re]reading Don Quixote, in spite of my personal dislike of picaresque tales. And O Pioneers! is in my queue.)
In short, though I wish there was more, or in some cases (like the first essay) a longer and more detailed account of the subject covered, I can't recommend this highly enough.
The first essay looks not within literature, but at literature itself, to demonstrate how the 19th century serial novel, a form that arose from the free operation of the marketplace, influenced and improved writers at a micro and a macro level, letting authors respond to their audiences before a work was complete, and letting some, including Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, attempt a new type of novel completely, one without any plan, which formed itself in the writing and, due to coming out in instalments, could not undo in a rewrite what was already done.
Other essays deal with Don Quixote, Willa Cather, Thomas Mann, and Ben Okri, and virtually every one of them inspired me to want to read the works they dealt with, or at least the authors. (Proof: I'm currently [re]reading Don Quixote, in spite of my personal dislike of picaresque tales. And O Pioneers! is in my queue.)
In short, though I wish there was more, or in some cases (like the first essay) a longer and more detailed account of the subject covered, I can't recommend this highly enough.
January 21, 2014
A fascinating series of essays all proposing an alternative economic analysis of literature to the traditional and hidebound Marxist critique so prevalent in academia today. They propose an analysis grounded in Austrian Economic theory. Austrian Economics with its focus on individual action is a perfect lens with which to dissect literature and the writer as an entrepreneurial force. Cantor, Cox and the other essayists do a beautiful job explaining various aspects of Austrian Economics theory and then applying it to masterworks by such disparate writers as Cervantes, Willa Cather, Joseph Conrad, Charles Dickens, H. G. Wells, Thomas Mann and others. Highly recommended to those interested in well written criticism and Austrian Economics.
November 25, 2014
Overall, a very interesting analysis of literary works that either emphasize motifs of economic freedom, or which (in the essayists opinions) fail to shunt them. Although I have not read many of the works covered in this collection, the authors did a good job of elucidating how they fit in with this sort of economic analysis. I came out of this book realizing I need to read more Ben Jonson, Willa Cather and Joseph Conrad. A dash of Thomas Mann probably wouldn't hurt, either.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews