Call for Submissions
Essay collection: “Investment, Finance and Economic Crises in Nineteenth-Century France”
This collection of essays will examine the culture of investment and finance, and its impact on the economy and society of nineteenth-century France. Our goal is to analyze the literary representations and cultural aspects of the different forms of investment, high finance, and the French economy throughout the century. We are therefore interested in submissions investigating the complex manifestations of nineteenth-century financial life in France and its impacts on culture change, class, gender, and race.
The transformation of the French economy was enhanced by the financing of technological innovation, particularly in transportation and communication, the development of new forms of investments (joint-stock companies, consolidated funds), the French presence overseas, the creation of new knowledge disseminated through a flourishing financial press, and the growing participation of its citizenry in the bond and stock markets. This evolution toward a more complex economy not only created a new investment culture and practice within the French population, but also raised moral concerns and social preoccupations which excited and worried many outside of the financial sector, including the intellectual and literary elites.
The relative democratization of the stock markets and diversity of investment brought opportunities to middle-class families as well as an entire service sector that catered to this growing group of investors. It also gave birth to financial journalism, manuals, advice books, advertisements glamorizing investment as a social practice, and promised wealth, all of which should be scrutinized. These found their high culture echoes in novels, essays, and plays which sought to define this new culture of speculation, often contradicting capitalist discourses.
The financial sphere overlapped with the domestic sphere, and a wide spectrum of society. Further, many investments were made to finance the development of companies overseas. In that sense, the expansion of international banking and investments by French citizens had global implications that should be addressed.
Capital gains, surpluses, promises of prosperity and wealth, excesses, greed, rumors, secrecy, frauds and scams, financial manipulation leading to bubbles, crashes and economic crises, and recovery plans became fodder for novels and stage productions. The theatrical vision of the stock market as a place for speculation and irresponsible gambling controlled by financier rogues should also be explored.
Linked to fears about financial transgressors and bank villains, stereotypes of foreign or non-Christian speculators prospered; these stereotypes need to be re-examined in light of contemporary economic discourses. Fears about conspiracies, imagined or real, connecting bankers, industrial barons, and politicians, are possible themes.
Consideration of the relationship between literature, finance, and banking cannot ignore the changing economic situation of French literature during this period. Literary authors were producers and consumers of capital. Whether books should be produced for their commercial value or their aesthetic value opened a debate that it is still relevant to literary production today.
In addition to investigating the new investors and their representations, we also encourage submissions related to the extent, role, and significance of the working class and women as economic agents in both reality and fiction.
Inquiries are encouraged and should be addressed to Dr. Stéphane Pillet (stephane.pillet@upr.edu)
All submissions must be written in or translated into English. Please send your submission, as an MS Word document between 5000 to 6500 words, by May 31st, 2010, to Dr. Stéphane Pillet (stephane.pillet@upr.edu)