2011 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
On the parallel relationship of the imaginations found in American Literary Fiction and American Paper Currency System
| Project/Area Number |
20720085
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
Literature in English
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| Research Institution | Konan University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2008 – 2011
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| Keywords | アメリカ文学 / 貨幣 / 紙幣 / 想像力 |
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| Research Abstract |
On the assumption that there can be a parallel relationship between American fiction and its contemporary monetary system, especially paper currency system, I wrote essays on the works of 4 American writers, namely Paul Auster, Mark Twain, Frank Baum and Herman Melville. In Auster's work, we can find the disbelief in the common reality, which is typical in post 9.11 America and can be found its contemporary joke note, Deception Dollar. In Twain's work I argued on the separation of a person and his signature, as an issue that is parallel to the logic of bimetallism. I discussed Baum's work as an allegory of the rhetoric of paper money, with the color green as its ground, and in Melville's short story, I found its protagonist's resistance to copying as something that is based on the same rhetoric that can be seen in its contemporary fantasy note.
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