Promissory Notes

There is no doubt that the beginning of the twenty-first century was marked by crises of debt. Less well known is that literature played a historical role in defining and teaching debt to the public. Promissory Notes: On the Literary Conditions of Debt addresses how neoliberal finance has depended u...

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Main Author: Truth Goodman, Robin
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Lever Press 2021
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Online Access:OCN: 1060619465
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author Truth Goodman, Robin
author_browse Truth Goodman, Robin
author_facet Truth Goodman, Robin
author_sort Truth Goodman, Robin
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description There is no doubt that the beginning of the twenty-first century was marked by crises of debt. Less well known is that literature played a historical role in defining and teaching debt to the public. Promissory Notes: On the Literary Conditions of Debt addresses how neoliberal finance has depended upon a historical linking of geopolitical inequality and financial representation that positions the so-called “Third World” as negative value, or debt. Starting with an analysis of Anthony Trollope’s novel,The Eustace Diamonds, Goodman shows how colonized spaces came to inhabit this negative value. Promissory Notes argues that the twentieth-century continues to apply literary innovations in character, subjectivity, temporal and spatial representation to construct debt as the negative creation of value not only in reference to objects, but also houses, credit cards, students, and, in particular, “Third World” geographies, often leading to crisis. Yet, late twentieth century and early twenty-first literary texts, such as Soyinka’s The Road and Ngugi’s. Wizard of the Crow, address the negative space of the indebted world also as a critique of the financial take-over of the postcolonial developmental state. Looking to situations like the Puerto Rican debt crisis, Goodman demonstrates how financial discourse is articulated through social inequalities and how literature can both expose and contest the imposition of a morality of debt as mode of anti-democratic control.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-309662025-10-16T12:32:13Z Promissory Notes Truth Goodman, Robin debt history thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSA Literary theory There is no doubt that the beginning of the twenty-first century was marked by crises of debt. Less well known is that literature played a historical role in defining and teaching debt to the public. Promissory Notes: On the Literary Conditions of Debt addresses how neoliberal finance has depended upon a historical linking of geopolitical inequality and financial representation that positions the so-called “Third World” as negative value, or debt. Starting with an analysis of Anthony Trollope’s novel,The Eustace Diamonds, Goodman shows how colonized spaces came to inhabit this negative value. Promissory Notes argues that the twentieth-century continues to apply literary innovations in character, subjectivity, temporal and spatial representation to construct debt as the negative creation of value not only in reference to objects, but also houses, credit cards, students, and, in particular, “Third World” geographies, often leading to crisis. Yet, late twentieth century and early twenty-first literary texts, such as Soyinka’s The Road and Ngugi’s. Wizard of the Crow, address the negative space of the indebted world also as a critique of the financial take-over of the postcolonial developmental state. Looking to situations like the Puerto Rican debt crisis, Goodman demonstrates how financial discourse is articulated through social inequalities and how literature can both expose and contest the imposition of a morality of debt as mode of anti-democratic control. 2021-02-10T13:46:32Z 2021-02-10T13:46:32Z 2020-05-15T12:21:17Z 2018 book OCN: 1060619465 http://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/37745 9781643150000 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/30966 eng open access image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/37745/1/9781643150024.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/37745/1/9781643150024.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/37745/1/9781643150024.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/37745/1/9781643150024.pdf Lever Press 10.3998/mpub.10209707 10.3998/mpub.10209707 1f7afbda-6b1b-482d-b7ae-aa8e17267d01 9781643150000 135 open access
spellingShingle debt
history
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSA Literary theory
Truth Goodman, Robin
Promissory Notes
title Promissory Notes
title_full Promissory Notes
title_fullStr Promissory Notes
title_full_unstemmed Promissory Notes
title_short Promissory Notes
title_sort promissory notes
topic debt
history
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSA Literary theory
topic_facet debt
history
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSA Literary theory
url OCN: 1060619465
work_keys_str_mv AT truthgoodmanrobin promissorynotes