The Insatiability of Human Wants
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The Insatiability of Human Wants by Regenia Gagnier
What is the relationship between our conception of humans as producers or creators; as consumers of taste and pleasure; and as creators of value? Combining cultural history, economics, and literary criticism, Regenia Gagnier's new work traces the parallel development of economic and aesthetic theory, offering a shrewd reading of humans as workers and wanters, born of labor and desire. The Insatiability of Human Wants begins during a key transitional moment in aesthetic and economic theory, 1871, when both disciplines underwent a turn from production to consumption models. In economics, an emphasis on the theory of value and the social relations between land, labor, and capital gave way to more individualistic models of consumerism. Similarly, in aesthetics, theories of artistic production or creativity soon bowed to models of taste, pleasure, and reception. Using these developments as a point of departure, Gagnier deftly traces the shift in Western thought from models of production to consumption. From its exploration of early market logic and Kantian thought to its look at the aestheticization of homelessness and our own market boom, The Insatiability of Human Wants invites us to contemplate alternative interpretations of economics, aesthetics, and history itself.
REGENIA GAGNIER has held chairs at Stanford University, USA, and the University of Exeter, UK, where she is currently Professor of English and Director of Exeter Interdisciplinary Institute. She has also taught at Berkeley and Oxford. Her previous books include Idylls of the Marketplace, Subjectivities: A History of Self-Representation in Britain 1832-1920 and The Insatiability of Human Wants: Economics and Aesthetics in Market Society. She is also Editor in Chief of Literature Compass and Director of its Global Circulation Project and President of the British Association for Victorian Studies.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780226278544 |
| ISBN 10 | 0226278549 |
| Title | The Insatiability of Human Wants |
| Author | Regenia Gagnier |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | The University of Chicago Press |
| Year published | 2000-12-01 |
| Number of pages | 262 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |