Randomness, Uncertainty, and Economic Behavior: The Life of Money in Eighteenth-Century Fiction

摘要: OF DISSERTATION RANDOMNESS, UNCERTAINTY, AND ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR: THE LIFE MONEY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION My dissertation argues that fiction produced in England during the frequent financial crises and political volatility experienced between 1770 1820 both reflected shaped cultural anxiety occasioned by a seemingly random increasingly uncertain world. The project begins within historical framework of multiple occurred late eighteenth century: seven took place 1760 1797 alone, appearing out nowhere creating climate meltdown. But how did awareness economic turbulence filter into creative consciousness? Through an interdisciplinary focus on studies behavioral economics, posits spite their conventional, status quo affirming endings (opportunists are punished, lovers married), novels plays written contemplated models behavior were newly opportunistic, echoing reluctant realization irrationality had become norm rather than rare aberration. By analyzing concrete narrative strategies used writers such as Frances Burney, Georgiana Cavendish, Hannah Cowley, Thomas Holcroft, I demonstrate eighteenth-century articulates elides randomness uncertainty its depiction plot, character, narrative.