engleski

The Capital and the Romantic Sublime: Scaling the (In)conceivable

This paper aims to explore the idea that the formulation of the modern discipline of economics involved a discourse on the romantic sublime. As the key trope of the experience of the sublime is the fascination with the inconceivable, Britain’s ever-increasing national debt and the power of capital accumulation to bring about social change and progress can be seen as two sides of the same coin. In other words, the discourse of the sublime implies the idea of debt which can grow to inconceivable proportions but on the other hand, in a manner of scaling, this same discourse possesses an omnipotent quality to excite the imagination. It is therefore not surprising that David Hume, being primarily the philosopher of the mind, was going to write essays on the rise of commerce, which proved to be the vital influence on Adam Smith’s work. It is against the background of such socio- economic reality that the paper will try to explore this same discourse within the writings of William Wordsworth and Thomas de Quincey. Thus, Wordsworth’s analysis of the effects of the sublime in The Prelude has to be read against his belief in ‘certain inherent and indestructible qualities of the human mind’ (1800 Preface to Lyrical Ballads) and his hatred towards the rising capitalist society which forges a new type of human subjectivity devoid of these qualities. For de Quincey, who lived most of his life in debt, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater can be read as an autobiographical endeavour to deal with neuroses brought about by accumulation of debt. The paper will hopefully show the tensions inherent in the romantic discourse of the sublime in a manner which connects romantic modes of subjectivity to the rising capitalist society.

Romantic sublime, economics, Thomas de Quincey

nije evidentirano