Imagined Economies - Real Fictions

The way we conceptualise the economy and ourselves as homo economicus has profound consequences for our lives. The contributions to this anthology take debates about the financial crisis, about recent austerity measures or about the Brexit referendum a step further. A common denominator of these dynamics are underlying ideas of »the economy«. Each author identifies a facet of Britain's imagined economies. They connect seemingly separate fields such as finance and fiction in order to better understand current political changes. In addition, the book offers an urgently needed interdisciplinary view on the performative power of economic thought - and in this respect moves far beyond merely British perspectives.

Jessica Fischer is a lecturer and researcher in Literary and Cultural Studies. She studied English, History of Art, European Cultural Studies, and Cultural and Social Anthropology at the University of Freiburg, the Freie Universität Berlin, and the University College London. At Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, she wrote her doctoral thesis entitled Agency. The Entrepreneurial Self in Narratives of Transformation. Her research involves Cultural Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Postclassical Narratology, Social Philosophy and Anthropology.
Gesa Stedman is professor of British culture and literature and the Director of the Centre for British Studies at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. She has edited a large number of special issues, e.g. for The Journal of the Study of British Cultures, as well as edited collections, most recently on Brexit and the Arts.