| Description |
1 online resource |
| Physical Medium |
polychrome |
| Description |
text file |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Summary |
Does the need to write for money affect what is written? Selling the Story addresses the issue of how the business of literature influences its very composition. Authors participate in a marketplace in which the reader is the target of a literary "sell." Using as examples Balzac, Dostoevsky, and Zola, Jonathan Paine shows how major works reflect their authors' differing "point of sale" perspectives on reader response and the market for literature. Uncovering this process opens a new role for economic criticism and offers new and original readings of canonical texts. Paine contends that "selling the story" to the reader, both literally and figuratively, is a genuine transaction which can be analyzed in economic terms. An author's choice of transaction type - prospectus, auction or speculation - can reveal much about his approach to the creation of literary value. Even an author's fictional representation of transactions in novels can show distinct and differentiated approaches to the business of literature. This "point-of-sale" analysis represents a distinctive new departure in economic criticism.-- Provided by publisher |
| Contents |
Introduction: The economics of narrative -- Balzac: narrative as business -- Dostoevsky: who buys the story? -- Zola: the business of narrative |
| Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
| Subject |
Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850 -- Criticism and interpretation.
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Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850. |
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Criticism and interpretation. |
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Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 1821-1881 -- Criticism and interpretation.
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Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 1821-1881. |
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Zola, Émile, 1840-1902 -- Criticism and interpretation.
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Zola, Émile, 1840-1902. |
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Authorship -- Marketing -- History -- 19th century.
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Authorship -- Marketing. |
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History. |
| Chronological Term |
19th century |
| Subject |
Economics and literature -- History -- 19th century.
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Serialized fiction -- History and criticism.
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Economics and literature. |
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Publishers and publishing -- History -- 19th century.
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Publishers and publishing. |
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Serialized fiction. |
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LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- French. |
| Chronological Term |
1800-1899 |
| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
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Electronic books.
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Criticism, interpretation, etc.
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History.
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| Other Form: |
Print version: Paine, Jonathan. Selling the story. Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2019 9780674988439 (DLC) 2019008949 (OCoLC)1090014796 |
| ISBN |
9780674243033 (electronic book) |
|
067424303X (electronic book) |
|
9780674988439 |
|
0674988434 |
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