Title Selling the story : transaction and narrative value in Balzac, Dostoevsky, and Zola / Jonathan Paine

Published Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2019

Click on the following:
EBSCO eBooks
JSTOR eBooks

Copies

Description 1 online resource Contents Introduction: The economics of narrative -- Balzac: narrative as business -- Dostoevsky: who buys the story? -- Zola: the business of narrative Summary Does the need to write for money affect what is written? Selling the Story addresses the issue of how the business of literature influences its very composition. Authors participate in a marketplace in which the reader is the target of a literary "sell." Using as examples Balzac, Dostoevsky, and Zola, Jonathan Paine shows how major works reflect their authors' differing "point of sale" perspectives on reader response and the market for literature. Uncovering this process opens a new role for economic criticism and offers new and original readings of canonical texts. Paine contends that "selling the story" to the reader, both literally and figuratively, is a genuine transaction which can be analyzed in economic terms. An author's choice of transaction type - prospectus, auction or speculation - can reveal much about his approach to the creation of literary value. Even an author's fictional representation of transactions in novels can show distinct and differentiated approaches to the business of literature. This "point-of-sale" analysis represents a distinctive new departure in economic criticism.-- Provided by publisher Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Print version record Subject Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850 -- Criticism and interpretation Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 1821-1881 -- Criticism and interpretation Zola, Émile, 1840-1902 -- Criticism and interpretation SUBJECT Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850 fast Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 1821-1881 fast Zola, Émile, 1840-1902 fast Subject Authorship -- Marketing -- History -- 19th century Economics and literature -- History -- 19th century Serialized fiction -- History and criticism Publishers and publishing -- History -- 19th century LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- French. Authorship -- Marketing Economics and literature Publishers and publishing Serialized fiction Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc. History Form Electronic book LC no. 2019008949 ISBN 9780674243033 067424303X

  Permalink