Ökonomische Menschen

Literary economic anthropology analyses the contribution of literary texts to discourses of economic men. The generalised model of the 'homo oeconomicus' does not embrace the diversity of literary figures or their attitudes towards economy; therefore, this study focuses on a variety of economic individuals, exemplified by the idealised merchant, by the speculator, whose machinations are generally regarded as uncanny and finally the Good-For-Nothing, who seems to negate all economic coherence. From contouring these different types of economic men emerges a comprehensive picture of the economic culture of the 'long nineteenth century' – a century in which literature stages its figures as economic men, who perceive themselves and their environment as economised.