History of Literature and Critical Thought 1832-1900 (402-0-20)
Topic
Economies of Literature
Instructors
Jorg Kreienbrock
847/491-5788
1880 Campus Drive, Kresge Hall, Rm 3323
Office Hours: Mon, 12-1 PM or by appointment
Meeting Info
Kresge 3354 German Seminar Rm.: Wed 2:00PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
This class explores the development of the concept of the so-called Homo Economicus in 19th-century literature, philosophy, law, and political economy. We will examine how ideas related to property, exchange, debt, and credit play a central role in the growing interconnection between emerging economic knowledge and literary representation, from Goethe and German Romanticism to the post-revolutionary literature of restoration and realism. Literature will be understood as a practice of extensive exchange. Following Adam Smith's influential work, The Wealth of Nations, the desire to accumulate wealth is crucial to the processes of subjectivization, positioning the modern bourgeois subject in a precarious situation at the intersection of industrialization, financialization, and colonial exploitation. Our readings will primarily focus on German literature, including works by Goethe, Novalis, Tieck, Stifter, Keller, and Freytag, alongside contemporary critical reflections from thinkers such as Marx, Proudhon, Sohn-Rethel, Marcuse, Schmitt, Heidegger, and Agamben.
Class Materials (Required)
All texts (with a few exceptions) are available in English translation, therefore reading knowledge of German is not required