THE BOURGEOIS BETWEEN FACT AND FANCY: UTILITARIAN CALCULUS AND ITS PITFALLS IN HARD TIMES
THE BOURGEOIS BETWEEN FACT AND FANCY: UTILITARIAN CALCULUS AND ITS PITFALLS IN HARD TIMES

Summary/Abstract: The Bourgeois between Fact and Fancy: Utilitarian Calculus and its Pitfalls in Hard Times. Starting from Franco Moretti’s observations on the “seriousness” of the “middle-way,” this paper proposes an examination of a number of topical aspects regarding the bourgeois ethos, as illustrated in Charles Dickens’s Hard Times. The argument is constructed around the centrality of “innovation” and focuses on the limits and excesses of utilitarianism, as well as on the dichotomy Fact – Fancy and the way in which bourgeois virtue is regained through self-discovery.

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