Hayekian Literary Criticism Proposed as Alternative to Marxist Analysis
7 reported
A blog post on Marginal Revolution suggests that Marxist concepts dominate literary criticism in English departments, despite Marx’s economic ideas being considered a dead end. The post proposes a Hayekian approach to literary analysis, citing Paul Cantor’s essay on Thomas Mann’s “Disorder and Early Sorrow” as a model. Cantor’s reading, the post states, shows how inflation in Weimar Germany, as depicted in Mann’s story, leads to moral and social disorder, contrasting with a Marxist reading that would blame capitalism. The post argues that Hayekian ideas such as spontaneous order and the fatal conceit could be applied to works like “War and Peace,” “Brazil,” “The Lives of Others,” and “The Wire.” It notes that Cantor’s essay demonstrates the method but that the broader project remains underdeveloped.
What’s reported
The post states that Marx-influenced literary criticism is a dominant mode of analysis in nearly every English department in the country.
It says that even non-Marxist professors reach for Marxian concepts like class, ideology, alienation, material conditions, and commodification when analyzing texts.
The post cites Paul Cantor’s essay on Thomas Mann’s “Disorder and Early Sorrow,” set in Weimar Germany during hyperinflation, as a starting point for Hayekian literary criticism.
According to the post, Cantor shows that reading the novella through Hayek and Mises reveals that inflation shortens time horizons, inverts the authority of age over youth, and converts economic disorder into moral, social, psychological, and ontological disorder.
The post states that a Marxist could read the same story and find the inevitable contradictions of capitalism, while Cantor reads it and finds the consequences of the state debasing the currency.
The post suggests Hayekian ideas such as atavism, the impossibility of social justice, spontaneous order, the fatal conceit, subjectivism, and the sensory order could be drawn upon for literary interpretation.
It mentions that the broader project of Hayekian literary criticism remains underdeveloped.
Key figures
Paul Cantor (author of an essay on Thomas Mann’s “Disorder and Early Sorrow”)
Thomas Mann (author of “Disorder and Early Sorrow”)
Friedrich Hayek (economist, referenced in the proposed criticism)
Ludwig von Mises (economist, referenced in the proposed criticism)
Hollis Robbins (acknowledged for discussion)
Sources: marginalrevolution.com
