OSL Seminar ‘Exploring economic history through literature: an interdisciplinary introduction’

Dates & Time: 3 October, 17 October, 31 October, 14 November, 28 November, 12 December, 10:15-13:00
Venue: Utrecht University, Kromme Nieuwegracht 80 – Room 0.07
Organizers: Dr John Tang and Dr Flore Janssen (Utrecht University).
Credits: 5 EC. More details on the assignments will be provided soon. NB: Credits can only be awarded to humanities ReMA and PhD students from Dutch universities.
Open to: PhDs and ReMA students; OSL members have first access.

Registraton will open on 4 September 2025 VIA THIS LINK.

Literature is inextricably bound up with money, from the subject matter of the texts to the practices of literary production and distribution. The novel as a form has traditionally been associated with class politics and their underlying economic structures, while the plots of literary works frequently hinge on economic developments, whether at a macro- or microlevel. It is rare, however, for literary analysis to be brought into direct dialogue with economic theory and the history of economics. This course offers an introduction to economic history through literary sources in which each of the three disciplines – comparative literature, history and economics – illuminate and challenge one another to enable complex critical analysis of the source material.
The course will range across global regions, cover historical periods from the pre-modern to the speculative future, and comprise a variety of literary genres from realism to science fiction via poetry, memoir and testimony. In each of these contexts we use economic theory and economic history to enhance understanding of the case studies but also use the case studies in their turn to test the applicability of the theory.

More information will follow soon.