ENGL 63.03 Fictions of Finance: For Love or Money

Love or money? It is difficult to decide which of these forces influences our lives more greatly. While money may not buy happiness, love seldom manages to put food on the table. This course examines literary texts, films, and other kinds of cultural objects in which romance and finance overlap and come into conflict. It examines the ways in which both finance (especially speculation) and literature believe in the reality of fiction. The course broadly considers the social ramifications of the financialization of daily life, drawing on anthropology, sociology, political economy, and cultural studies to thicken our understanding of what it means to live in a world where finance determines so much. Students will have the opportunity to design a project dealing with issues of financial literacy. Possible readings/viewings include: Theodore Dreiser’s The Financier, Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story, William Gibson’s Peripheral, The Big Short (dir. Adam McKay), The Wolf of Wall Street (dir. Martin Scorsese), and Alissa Quart’s Monetized. 

Degree Requirement Attributes

Dist:LIT; WCult:W

The Timetable of Class Meetings contains the most up-to-date information about a course. It includes not only the meeting time and instructor, but also its official distributive and/or world culture designation. This information supersedes any information you may see elsewhere, to include what may appear in this ORC/Catalog or on a department/program website. Note that course attributes may change term to term therefore those in effect are those (only) during the term in which you enroll in the course.

Department-Specific Course Categories

Junior Colloquium: Course Group III