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Book synopsis

This work examines the effects on literary works of a little-noted economic development in the early twentieth century: individuals and governments alike began to regard going into debt as a normal and even valuable part of life. The author also shows, surprisingly, that the economic changes normalizing debt paralleled and intersected with changes in sexual discourse. In Victorian novels, sex and debt are considered dangerous activities that the young should avoid in order to save and invest toward eventual marriage and a home. In twentieth-century texts, however, it often seems acceptable to go into debt and engage in sex before marriage. These literary representations followed social transformations as both economic and sexual discourse moved from the logic of saving and production to the logic of circulation. In Keynesian economics and consumerism, governments and individuals were actually encouraged to borrow and to spend more in order to increase demand and keep money circulating. In twentieth-century sexual treatises, people were similarly encouraged to indulge their desires, as pent-up states were considered as deleterious to the physical body as they were to the economic.

Book details

Book category Books in English Literature & literary studies Literature: history & criticism Literary studies: general

• Full title: Deficits and Desires
• Subtitle: Economics and Sexuality in Twentieth-century Literature
• Author: Michael Tratner
• Language: English
• Binding: Hardback
• Number of pages: 238
• EAN: 9780804741248
• ISBN: 0804741247
• ID: 04717260
• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Weight: 372 g
• Dimensions: 216 × 140 × 20 mm
• Date of publishing: 31. October 2001

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