Fiction can be a powerful force to educate students and employees in ways that lectures, textbooks, articles, case studies, and other traditional teaching approaches cannot. This anthology includes articles from a number of individuals from a range of different disciplines and perspectives. All of the contributors to Capitalism and Commerce in Imaginative Literature are committed to treating literary texts with integrity and believe that business should have a larger claim upon people's literary consciousness. In addition, they all value the important role of literature in dealing with the complexities of a capitalist culture. This collection of essays provides a means to appreciate the richness and variety of fictional portrayals of businesses and businesspersons. The works selected for examination reflect the variety of philosophical, political, economic, cultural, social, and ethical perspectives that have been found over time in American society. The novels and plays analyzed include high literature, mid-range literature, popular literature, ancient epics, grand narratives, hero tales, masterpieces, ideological texts, science fiction, and more. There are a great many works of literature waiting to be read and studied by business and economically-minded individuals from many different viewpoints and fields of study. This volume provides a space to explore a wide range of fictional works and opinions about them.
Chapter 1 Capitalism and Commerce in Novels and Plays Chapter 2 Epic and the Medium of Exchange Chapter 3 The Cost of War and the Profits of Peace in Aristophanes' Archarnians Chapter 4 A Time for Bonding: Commerce, Love, and Law in The Merchant of Venice Chapter 5 Human Action: Pursing Happiness Inside and Outside the Happy Valley Chapter 6 The Rime of the Neoclassical Economist: The Economist's Failure at Spreading the Passion of Capitalism Chapter 7 Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South: Industrial Energy Versus "The Idiocies Of Rural Life" Chapter 8 Where Have You Gone, Horatio Alger: A Long Gone Literary Hero and the Bourgeois Virtues Chapter 9 Crony Capitalism in The Gilded Age by Twain and Warner and its Relevance for Today Chapter 10 Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People Chapter 11 William Dean Howells' Work Ethic in The Rise of Silas Lapham Chapter 12 Capitalism Contra Ethics: William Dean Howells and the Moral Ambivalence of Business Chapter 13 The Panic of '93: The Literary Response Chapter 14 Heroism Redefined: Integrating Mind and Emotion in Calumet "K" Chapter 15 Women's Work: Edna Ferber, Emma McChesney, and the Portrait of the American Businesswoman Chapter 16 The Great Gatsby: A Commentary on the Wealthy in America of the 1920s Chapter 17 Steinbeck's Perspectives on Capitalism: From The Grapes of Wrath to East of Eden Chapter 18 Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, and Libertarianism Chapter 19 The Freedom Gradient in Ayn Rand's Novels Chapter 20 Identity, Professional Ethics and Substantive Style in The Fountainhead Chapter 21 Business in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged Chapter 22 Business as an Agent of Human Progress in Time Will Run Back, Methuselah's Children and The Transhumanist Wager Chapter 23 Rabbit in the Showroom: Healthy, Wealthy, and No Place Left to Run Chapter 24 Roger Rueff's Hospitality Suite Chapter 25 Writing, Money, Markets, Slavery & Unintended Consequences at the Beginning of History: Samuel R. Delany's Return to Neveryon Chapter 26 "We Do Not Sow": The Economics and Politics of A Song of Ice and Fire Chapter 27 Harry Potter and the Invisible Hand; or, the Virtue of Business that is Not Serious Chapter 28 Race, Rules, and Real Estate in August Wilson's Radio Golf
