Learning Outcomes:
At the conclusion of this module students should be able to demonstrate:
• A familiarity with the field of economic humanities, and literary and economic criticism
• A knowledge of the impact financial ‘booms and busts’ have had on literary writings from the eighteenth to the twenty-first
century
• An increased understanding of the way literature uses, adapts and critiques economic themes and theories and how economic
systems and theories also depend on literary devices
• An increased understanding of how literature can instruct readers to assess value and make judgments
• An ability to write critically about a range of texts from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century
Indicative Module Content:
Students will study short stories, novels, and spoken-word poetry from the 18th century to contemporary writing. Authors studied may include: Jonathan Swift, Jane Austen, Wilkie Collins, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Don DeLillo, Lauren Beukes, Donal Ryan, Jesmyn Ward, and Kae Tempest.
Topics may include: eighteenth-century speculative bubbles, nineteenth-century crashes, the 'Roaring Twenties', the virtual market, the Celtic Tiger, the Global Financial Crisis, disaster capitalism, post-crash austerity, cyberpunk dystopias, currencies and literary representation.