Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T09:11:57.683Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 4 - Economy

from Part I - Fractures and Continuities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2022

Justine S. Murison
Affiliation:
University of Illinois
Get access

Summary

This essay examines how the antebellum economy was depicted in American literature from about 1820 to 1860. The first section borrows from the “New Economic Criticism” to provide an overview of the way American writers tended to represent the emergence of a new form of economic selfhood in America, one based both on credit and speculation and on market notions of “success” and “failure.” The second section takes its cue from recent scholarship in “Transnational American Studies” to suggest a possible future for economic criticism, one that attends to the way American literary selfhood was imagined during this period in relation to global networks of trade and exchange.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Economy
  • Edited by Justine S. Murison, University of Illinois
  • Book: American Literature in Transition, 1820–1860
  • Online publication: 09 June 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108566872.006
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Economy
  • Edited by Justine S. Murison, University of Illinois
  • Book: American Literature in Transition, 1820–1860
  • Online publication: 09 June 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108566872.006
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Economy
  • Edited by Justine S. Murison, University of Illinois
  • Book: American Literature in Transition, 1820–1860
  • Online publication: 09 June 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108566872.006
Available formats
×