This essay examines the rhetorical and narrative strategies Dinah Mulock Craik adopts in John Halifax in order to come to terms with a profoundly ambivalent Victorian perception of the process of commodification, the lure of profit and the social status of tradesmen, businessmen, and entrepreneurs. The analysis focuses on the interplay of gifts and interests that constitutes an important feature of this narrative of economic success. First, I briefly rehearse some Victorian arguments on the vulgarity of commercial and industrial modernity by looking at business manuals that evoke the ethic of the gift in order to legitimate money-making activities. I then address the issue of the “double truth” of the gift (Bourdieu). This issue is crucial to an understanding of how Craik’s novel responds to the historical and ideological process whereby instrumental rationality comes to be naturalized. Finally I focus on the interaction between different “regimes of value” the novel. The text acknowledges the “subjective” truth of the gift (the habitus of generosity and altruism), especially through the narrator’s voice. Yet, the plot never fails to reward the pursuit of self-interest with symbolic and material gains. In other words, “sentimentality” and “economism,” the Scylla and Charybdis of gift theory, are represented simultaneously in John Halifax. My analysis emphasizes the latter because economism was not a dominant or unquestioned paradigm in Craik’s cultural template. That her novel articulates a story in which the pursuit of self-interest is not stigmatized or considered vulgar is significant in historical terms. Equally relevant is the emphasis on disinterestedness that marks the representation of John Halifax’s upward mobility. Ultimately, the narrative distils the innocence or purity of business by a continuous re-negotiation of the balance between giving and taking, between the virtue of disinterestedness and the logic of maximization Keywords: gift theory, business, John Halifax, self-interest

GIFTS AND INTERESTS: JOHN HALIFAX GENTLEMAN AND THE PURITY OF BUSINESS

COLELLA, Silvana
2007-01-01

Abstract

This essay examines the rhetorical and narrative strategies Dinah Mulock Craik adopts in John Halifax in order to come to terms with a profoundly ambivalent Victorian perception of the process of commodification, the lure of profit and the social status of tradesmen, businessmen, and entrepreneurs. The analysis focuses on the interplay of gifts and interests that constitutes an important feature of this narrative of economic success. First, I briefly rehearse some Victorian arguments on the vulgarity of commercial and industrial modernity by looking at business manuals that evoke the ethic of the gift in order to legitimate money-making activities. I then address the issue of the “double truth” of the gift (Bourdieu). This issue is crucial to an understanding of how Craik’s novel responds to the historical and ideological process whereby instrumental rationality comes to be naturalized. Finally I focus on the interaction between different “regimes of value” the novel. The text acknowledges the “subjective” truth of the gift (the habitus of generosity and altruism), especially through the narrator’s voice. Yet, the plot never fails to reward the pursuit of self-interest with symbolic and material gains. In other words, “sentimentality” and “economism,” the Scylla and Charybdis of gift theory, are represented simultaneously in John Halifax. My analysis emphasizes the latter because economism was not a dominant or unquestioned paradigm in Craik’s cultural template. That her novel articulates a story in which the pursuit of self-interest is not stigmatized or considered vulgar is significant in historical terms. Equally relevant is the emphasis on disinterestedness that marks the representation of John Halifax’s upward mobility. Ultimately, the narrative distils the innocence or purity of business by a continuous re-negotiation of the balance between giving and taking, between the virtue of disinterestedness and the logic of maximization Keywords: gift theory, business, John Halifax, self-interest
2007
Internazionale
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
gifts and interests.pdf

accesso aperto

Tipologia: Documento in post-print (versione successiva alla peer review e accettata per la pubblicazione)
Licenza: DRM non definito
Dimensione 112.03 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
112.03 kB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11393/36076
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo

Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 3
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 4
social impact