Litonomics

Paul Crosthwaite

doi:10.2218/finsoc.v1i2.1387

Litonomics

Paul Crosthwaite

Abstract

In David Lodge’s campus novel Nice Work (2011/1988), the protagonist, Robyn, comes across her literary theorist boyfriend, Charles, reading a book that appears, on the face of it, to be a far cry from his usual fare of Derrida and Lacan. Spotting the title, The Financial Revolution, Robyn expresses surprise that Charles “could ever get interested in business” (Lodge, 2011/1988: 153). He replies: “This isn’t business … It’s not about buying and selling real commodities. It’s all on paper, or computer screens. It’s abstract. It has its own rather seductive jargon — arbitrageur, deferred futures, floating rate. It’s like literary theory”...

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2218/finsoc.v1i2.1387

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