Description
Book SynopsisBy examining the “double narrative of capitalism”, Supritha Rajan’s
A Tale of Two Capitalisms traces how certain values and practices were segregated from the dominant model of capitalism, not only through the secularization of political economy as a discipline but also by anthropology, which theorized “sacrifice” or “ritual” in the context of “primitive” society.
Trade ReviewWinner: 23rd Annual Modern Language Association Prize for a First Book
“Working at the intersection of political economy, anthropology and literature, this richly erudite book deftly shows how nineteenth-century writers across disciplines made the sacred and the economic into opposites and unrecognized doubles of each other. The result is a truly original argument about capitalism in nineteenth-century Britain and a fresh account of the emergence of Victorian anthropology as a discipline, one that considers not only its relationship to political economy, but also to the novel.”
—Kathy Psomiades, Duke University
“Supritha Rajan establishes a new way of understanding the complex interrelations among nineteenth-century literature, anthropology, and political economy. With a commanding sweep of scholarship, past and present, and a fruitfully integrative grasp of theory, A Tale of Two Capitalisms will have a transformative impact on current debates in the field.”
—Mary Jean Corbett, Miami University
“A Tale of Two Capitalisms is a major contribution to the intellectual history of modernity and of how we understand capitalism and its ideological sidekick, economics. While literature is one of its concerns, it traces the complex, often neglected interplay between nineteenth-century anthropology and economics. The author’s knowledge of the history of these two social sciences is very impressive.”
—Patrick Brantlinger, Indiana University
“Rajan skillfully unearths and recreates the discursive and intellectual archeology of the concepts she examines. This enables her to explain with great precision the different ways that nineteenth-century theorists constructed and used these concepts. Rajan takes her readers into the internal logic of these terms so that we can see how they are reshaped and refigured according to the complex and competing needs each concept serves, including the moral and ideological agendas of the theorist, developments within the disciplines of anthropology and economics, and specific historical changes and pressures.”
—Claudia Klaver, Syracuse University
