000			a
999			_c34710 _d34710
008			250912b xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020			_a9780226498201
082			_a823.509355 _bLYN
100			_aLynch, Deidre Shauna
245			_aThe economy of character : novels, market culture, and the business of inner meaning
260			_bUniversity of Chicago Press, _c1998 _aLondon :
300			_axiii, 317 p. ; _c24 cm.
365			_b37.00 _c$ _d89.00
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
520			_aAt the start of the eighteenth century, talk of literary "characters" referred as much to letters and typefaces as it did to persons in books. Yet by the nineteenth century, characters had become companions to their readers, friends with whom readers might spend time and empathize. Although the story of this shift is usually told in terms of the "rise of the individual," Deidre Shauna Lynch proposes an ingenious alternative interpretation. Elaborating a "pragmatics of character," Lynch shows how readers used transactions with characters to accommodate themselves to newly commercialized social relations. Searching for the inner meanings of characters allowed readers both to plumb their own inwardness and to distinguish themselves from others. In a culture of mass consumption, argues Lynch, possessing a belief in the inexpressible interior life of a character rendered one's property truly private.
650			_aLiterature Studies and Criticism
650			_aFiction and Literature
650			_aSuspense and Thriller
650			_aPsychological fiction
650			_aRomanticism Great Britain
942			_2ddc _cBK