Worrying about Money in France: The Art and Literature of Financial Crisis, from Regency to Restoration

FAIN: FA-232383-16

Julia Douthwaite Viglione
University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN 46556-4635)

A book-length study of how 18th- and 19th-century French cultural expressions responded to economic crises in France between 1720 and 1820.
 

French literature has received a lot of attention lately from an unexpected public: economists. Nineteenth-century novels have particular appeal for economists seeking information on the wealth needed to frequent the elite of the 1820s, or the harsh consequences of bankruptcy laws. But the 1720s were actually more important for the history of finance than the 1820s. They saw the rise and fall of the Law System, which caused the first boom and bust in asset prices and left a long shadow over the years ahead. I argue that the Law System impacted an entire corpus of artifacts that I seek to study and combine in a new narrative of financial calamity. My book addresses how novelists, artists, and journalists kept fears of credit and borrowing in the air at four crucial moments: 1) during and after Law's system (1718-31); 2) during the early Revolution when the assignat was created 1789-91); 3) in the Directory period (1795-99); and (4) during the reign of Louis XVIII (1815-24).

Associated Products

The Frankenstein of the Apple Crate: A Possibly True Story of the Monster's Origins (Book)
Title: The Frankenstein of the Apple Crate: A Possibly True Story of the Monster's Origins
Author: Julia Douthwaite Viglione
Abstract: The first in a line of children's books I am publishing, as CEO of Honey Girl Books and Gifts LLC. (As promised in my grant report, I am experiencing life as a small business owner, in preparation for writing the NEH funded scholarly book on money in lit.) "The Frankenstein of the Apple Crate" is a ghost story, a Gothic novel for youngsters, and a work of alternative history. It shows how Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, then age 19, could have got the inspiration to write her masterpiece Frankenstein during that fateful night on the banks of Lake Geneva. It makes a leap of imagination into the past to unearth how the girl Mary could have read a French tale, published in 1790, that features an inventor named Frankénsteïn who makes a man-sized robot. Could the secret have been left behind in the papers of her mother, the amazing Mary Wollstonecraft? Possibly true (and possibly not!), "The Frankenstein of the Apple Crate" was inspired by archival research, and includes historical and biographical notes by scholars of the French Revolution, Mary Shelley, and the thrilling Frankenstein.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/title/frankenstein-of-the-apple-crate-a-possibly-true-story-of-the-monsters-origins/oclc/1194875310&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: Genre/Form: Fiction Juvenile works Juvenile fiction Named Person: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley; Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Material Type: Fiction, Juvenile audience Document Type: Book All Authors / Contributors: Julia Douthwaite Viglione; Karen Neis; Eileen M Hunt; Greg Kucich Find more information about: Julia Douthwaite Viglione OCLC Number: 1194875310 Description: 35 pages : color illustrations ; 28 cm Responsibility: Julia Douthwaite Viglione ; illustrated by Karen Neis, with historical and biographical notes by Eileen Hunt Botting & Greg Kucich.
Publisher: Honey Girl Books and Gifts LLC
Type: Other
ISBN: 978-0-9984432-
Copy sent to NEH?: No

A Spooky Tale of Spring, Or, How the Grumpy Mom Got her Cheer Back (Book)
Title: A Spooky Tale of Spring, Or, How the Grumpy Mom Got her Cheer Back
Author: Julia Douthwaite Viglione
Abstract: The second in a line of children's books I am publishing, as CEO of Honey Girl Books and Gifts LLC. (As promised in my grant report, I am experiencing life as a small business owner, in preparation for writing the NEH funded scholarly book on money in lit.) This book retells the Dickens novel, "A Christmas Carol," with a Ghost Cat named Iris instead of a Ghost business partner named Marley: a spooky cat who visits her former owner to teach a lesson of kindness to animals. When the Ghost Cat and other spirits leave her at last, the grumpy woman's bad temper is gone and a new friend named Cheer moves in. Set during the COVID-19 pandemic, this book updates a classic for our troubled times and depicts a multicultural urban utopia as the happy ending, with humor that both children and adults will enjoy. As Murray Baumgarten, Founder of the UCSC Dickens Project writes: "Laughter heals, and this lovely book kept me laughing. It's a wonderful tribute to Dickens's 'Christmas Carol', by extending it to animals. Our pets come out ahead here, knowing things it would be best for we adults to learn and take to heart. And as we laugh and chortle, we heal."
Year: 2020
Primary URL: http://https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=ti%3AA+Spooky+Tale+of+Spring+au%3AJulia+Douthwaite+Viglione&qt=advanced&dblist=638
Primary URL Description: No description on file yet w/World Cat. Fiction--Juvenile Pets in Fiction 39 pages Illustrated by Kiera Highsmith with 32 original images. Includes two historical or contextual notes, by Dickens scholar, Chris VandenBossche, and animal rights activist, Wendy A. Wolfe. 50% of the proceeds will be donated to the Homeward Bound Pet Rescue Organization of Mishawaka, IN.
Publisher: Honey Girl Books and Gifts LLC
Type: Other
ISBN: 978-0-9984432-
Copy sent to NEH?: No

CSEM 23102: Money Worries: Status and Value in Literature, Art, and Economic Theory (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: CSEM 23102: Money Worries: Status and Value in Literature, Art, and Economic Theory
Author: Julia Douthwaite Viglione
Abstract: This course builds on the current fascination with wealth and status to help students gain wisdom for living in capitalism. Complementing the special exhibit called “Money Worries” at the Snite Museum of Art, the course questions the “rational” nature of markets and the concept of value. We will study literature (fairy tales, fables, poetry and novels by Honoré de Balzac, Ayn Rand, and Alain Mabanckou) alongside theories of human behavior by economists Robert J. Shiller and Ha-Joon Chang in order to understand how value is assigned to certain products and social profiles (and not others), and to see how the marketing of elitism depends on socio-political factors to succeed. We will end with a consideration of some alternative economies that provide hope for the future.
Year: 2018
Audience: Undergraduate

Money Worries (Exhibition)
Title: Money Worries
Curator: Cheryl Snay
Curator: Julia Douthwaite Viglione
Curator: Randal Harrison
Abstract: Money is a frequent source of anxiety and stress in our daily lives. How do we get it? How do we keep it? What do we do with it once we have it? Bank notes are fundamentally promissory notes that generate and structure interpersonal and social relations. How does that affect our understanding of our own self-worth, the value we place on others, and our relationships to them? The “flip-side” of making value is making inequality. This exhibition aims to disrupt visitors’ received attitudes toward money, wealth, and poverty by examining various forms of antique and modern currency and anachronistic juxtapositions of historical and contemporary depictions in art of financial transactions, allegories, and portraits. Visitors will also have an opportunity to play digital or board games that challenge assumptions of “fairness” both in the artificial environment of the game and in life. The Landlord Game is a free educational board game designed to help faculty gamify the economic dimensions of social justice for their students. Follow the link to access more information about the game and to download game materials as seen in the Money Worries exhibition. https://randal-sean-harrison.github.io/landlord/index.html
Year: 2018
Primary URL: http://https://sniteartmuseum.nd.edu/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/2018-exhibitions/money-worries/
Primary URL Description: O’Shaughnessy Galleries II & III January 21 through March 25, 2018

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