The Market Logics of Contemporary Fiction

by Paul Crosthwaite

Overview

In the twenty-first century, leading publishers are under intense pressure from their conglomerate owners and shareholders to generate growth and profits. This book shows how these pressures have transformed the contemporary novel. Paul Crosthwaite argues that recent British and American authors have internalized the market logics of the financial sector and book trade, resulting in the production of works of 'market metafiction' in which authors reflect obsessively on their writing's positioning in the literary marketplace. The Market Logics of Contemporary Fiction reveals the entanglement of fictional narrative and market dynamics to be the central phenomenon of contemporary literary culture. It engages with work by key authors including Iain Sinclair, Don DeLillo, Kathy Acker, Bret Easton Ellis, Chris Kraus, Percival Everett, David Foster Wallace, Colson Whitehead, Anne Billson, Hari Kunzru, Barbara Browning, Teju Cole, Ben Lerner, Tao Lin, Nell Zink, Joshua Cohen, Sheila Heti, and Garth Risk Hallberg.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108499569
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/18/2019
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Twenty-First-Century Literature and Culture
Pages:	316
Product dimensions:	6.22(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.83(d)

About the Author

Paul Crosthwaite is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English Literature at the University of Edinburgh.

Table of Contents

Introduction: neoliberalism, financialization, and the contemporary literary marketplace; Part I. The Emergence of Market Metafiction: 1. Market metafiction and the varieties of postmodernism; Part II. The Phantasmagorias of Contemporary Finance: 2. Trading in the as if: fiduciary exchangeability and supernatural financial fiction; 3. 'The occult logic of 'market forces'': Iain Sinclair's post-Big Bang London; Part III. The Market Knows: 4. The price is right: market epistemology, narrative totality, and the 'big novel'; 5. Fully reflecting: knowing the mind of the market in DeLillo and Kunzru; 6. Putting everything on the table: markets and material conditions in twenty-first-century fiction; 7. Between autonomy and heteronomy: exchanging capital in Zink, Cohen, and Heti; Coda: basic income, or, why Barbara Browning's The Gift is not a gift.

Editorial Reviews

'Paul Crosthwaite engages deeply and thoughtfully with the fields of economics and economic history to produce a study that is genuinely interdisciplinary in scope. The book reconfigures economic concepts as formal strategies to great effect, generating highly original pairings and readings that are both insightful and persuasive. The book is superbly polished in its execution and a pleasure to read.' Janice Ho, University of Colorado

'The Market Logics of Contemporary Fiction offers an original and stimulating account of the intersections among imaginative writing, literary publishing, and high finance in the post-1970 period. Dealing with an array of prominent British and American novelists, and contributing substantially to debates in the new economic criticism, Paul Crosthwaite's book represents a major scholarly achievement. It should be read by anyone interested in the economic contexts and content of postmodern writing and should play a substantial role in reshaping the teaching of contemporary literature to new generations of students. I will recommend this book to my own students as a must-read account of the last few decades in fiction.' Adam Kelly, University of York

‘… scholars of economics as well as scholars of literature will benefit from this study.’ L. A. Brewer, Choice

…an exemplary work of literary historiography that offers a sophisticated account of late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century Anglo-American literary culture…. a compelling and highly readable account of the complicated relationship between financialization, the publishing industry, authorship, and the novel in the final decades of the twentieth century and the opening decades of the twenty-first … Crosthwaite’s book is an astute historicizing of the contemporary field of literary fiction that is at once expansive and detailed, broad and nuanced. There is a great deal that will be of value here to scholars interested in the intersection of contemporary literary theory with the material conditions of the publishing industry. And by bringing the latter to bear on the former, Crosthwaite has made a significant contribution to our understanding of both.' Hamilton Carroll, American Literary History

‘… ambitious, exciting, and engaging effort that make substantial scholarly contributions to unpacking the representational challenges for the novel in our present moment of finance capitalism … Across such a richly researched book, Crosthwaite is highly sensitive to the needs of the reader … deeply rewarding work.’ Andrew Rowcroft, Textual Practice

‘… an innovative contribution to an increasingly vibrant field of research … It must be one of the study’s most impressive aspects that it brings together such a wide array of influences, and with such apparent ease, not only describing but ultimately practicing the meaning of transdisciplinary inquiry.’ Caroline Koegler, C21 Literature: Journal of Twenty-First-Century Writings

‘The most striking aspect of Crosthwaite’s latest monograph is the delicate balancing of complex interpretations of the relationship between fiction and the market … The result of Crosthwaite’s success in negotiating this balance is that Market Logics is an attractive and engaging read for both newcomers to the economic humanities and experts alike … As a whole, Market Logics appeals to both ends of the academic spectrum, and excels in providing rigorous criticism … without excluding newer scholars from its argumentative process.’ Amy Bride, U.S. Studies Online

From the Publisher