Economics 397B - ST-Econ & Literary Imagination

Economics and the Literary Imagination, is a literature course with economic themes. Readings include Thomas More's /Utopia/, a 16th-century fantasy about a land with no exchange and no shortages, full employment and plenty of leisure time; Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice," the only Shakespeare play in which the title character is a business-oriented capitalist; John Steinbeck's /Grapes of Wrath/, an epic novel of the Dust Bowl and migrant workers in the Depression, heavy with political overtones; Arvind Adiga's /White Tiger/, about a hustling entrepreneur in modern India; Medea Benjamin's /Don't Be Afraid, Gringo/, an oral history of a peasant activist in Honduras; and George Bernard Shaw's "Major Barbara," an early 20th-century comedy about the peculiar clash of profits and good works. Additional readings are possible. Classes are primarily open-ended discussion and some lecturing, plus substantial reading-aloud of the two plays in the syllabus, with a focus on the relationship between these works and various economic themes, especially the theme of the relationship between individual self-interest and social well-being.

open to non-majors as of April 9