Money, Speculation and Finance in Contemporary British Fiction

Fiction has become increasingly concerned with the political and imaginative significance of finance, speculation and the money markets - from Ian Fleming'sGoldfingerto Jonathan Coe'sWhat a Carve Upand Martin Amis'Money. This book argues that recent British fiction demystifies the 'weightless' economy of contemporary money and critiques the popular sense of money as being everywhere but nowhere. The monograph provides a comprehensive survey of a large body of fictional texts that have striven to represent and understand the formative significance of finance capital on contemporary culture. In these novels, the implications of finance capitalism for political identity, for class politics, for the sovereignty of the nation state and a new global order are all explored, dramatised and critiqued. Authors covered include Margaret Drabble, Ian McEwan, Jonathan Coe, Alan Hollinghurst, Martin Amis and Malcolm Bradbury.

Nicky Marsh is Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Southampton.