Scandals and Abstraction: Financial Fiction of the Long 1980s

241 Pages·2014·1.26 MB·English

by  Leigh Claire La Berge

Scandals and Abstraction

Scandals and Abstraction
financial fiction of the long 1980s
Leigh Claire La Berge
1
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
La Berge, Leigh Claire.
Scandals and abstraction : financial fiction of the long 1980s / Leigh Claire La Berge.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-19-937287-4 (hardback)—ISBN 978-0-19-937288-1 (ebook)
1. American fiction—20th century—History and criticism. 2. Money in literature.
3. Finance in literature. 4. Capitalism and literature. 5. Financial crises in literature. I. Title.
PS374.M54L3 2014
813.009'3553—dc23 2014033968
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To my parents, Ann La Berge, Bernard La Berge,
and Marshall Fishwick; but especially for you, Mom

{ contents }
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 3
1. Personal Banking and Depersonalization in Don DeLillo’s
White Noise 37
2. Capitalist Realism: The 1987 Stock Market Crash and the
New Proprietary of Tom Wolfe and Oliver Stone 73
3. “The Men Who Make the Killings”: American Psycho and the
Genre of the Financial Autobiography 113
4. Realism and Unreal Estate: The Savings and Loan Scandals
and the Epistemologies of American Finance 149
Coda 191
Notes 195
Index 223

{ acknowledgments }
This book got its start as a dissertation in the American Studies
Program at New York University. Now that I myself have been through
the program, and have researched and taught at other universities, I
look back on my time at NYU and think: I can’t believe how lucky I
was. Andrew Ross is as generous and critical an advisor as one could
hope for; Kristin Ross is not only a role model intellectually and ped-
agogically, but also a trusted friend; Mary Poovey is one of the most
perspicacious readers I’ve encountered; Randy Martin continues to
provide an example of how to think about value across disciplines
and mediums. Outside of my committee, the Marx Reading Group,
which morphed into the Dissertation Writing Group, was a place to
refine my ideas and learn how to help colleagues refine theirs: Thank
you, Maggie Clinton, Michael Palm, John Pat Leary, Quinn Slobodian,
Ipek Celic, and Diego Benegas.
At the University of Chicago I found an inspired and inspiring
community in the Society of Fellows, including Nitzan Shoshan, Anita
Chari, Mara Marin, Emily Steinlight, Reha Kakadal, Ben McKeon,
and Dina Gusejnova. Away from the Society, Lauren Berlant and the
Affective Publics groups provided a space to work through methodo-
logical problems in genuinely new and creative ways. Now at Saint
Mary’s University, my colleagues in the English department provide
intellectual support and a collegial home: Phanuel Antwi, Teresa
Heffernan, Steph Morely, and Goran Stanivukovic, I’m thinking of
you; outside of the English department Darryl Leroux and John
Munro are models of political scholarship. Other scholars such as
Andrew Hoberek, Annie McClanahan, Alison Shonkwiler, Alissa
Karl, Megan Obourn, Miranda Joseph, Richard Dienst, Aimee Bahng,
Joshua Clover, Marcia Kay Klotz, Harry Harootunian, Richard
Godden, Maria Farland, Andy Cornell, J. D. Connor, Sarah Brouillette,
Doug Henwood, Colleen Lye, Mathias Nilges, Fiona Allon, and Max
Haiven, have had large and small conversations with me. Anna
Kornbluh is trusted scholar, colleague and friend. Debra Channick
helped me with the introduction and the beginning; Doug Barrett
helped me with formatting and finishing.