AMST 38182 - Capital Crimes: Money, Literature, and American Culture

Institution:

University of Notre Dame

Subject:

American Studies

Description:

At a meeting in 2003, R. Allen Stanford, accused multibillion-dollar Ponzi embezzler and president of Stanford International Bank, is said to have taken a "blood-oath" with the chief regulator of his Antiguan bank. When news of this oath broke in the fall of 2009 Stanford joined Bernard Madoff in the league of the most undignified "gentlemen" in American culture. Like Madoff, Stanford had committed a "capital crime" which robbed many and riveted the nation's attention. Like Stanford and many another "capital" criminals (Al Capone comes to mind), until his arrest Madoff enjoyed the welcome of society's elite and was generally regarded as a celebrity. "Capital Crimes" is thus about American culture's love affair with money. The course begins with Mark Twain's blistering satire The Gilded Age and moves through the current economic crises - which some critics like Paul Krugman and Kevin Phillips have referred to as coming at the tail end of America's second Gilded Age. Twain's satire was aptly called "A Tale of Today." In looking over the time between the two Gilded Ages, this course will try to construct a coherent account of the uneasy relationship between the period's major literary figures and its political and mercantile elite. We'll see if and how writers and artists who set themselves up as the voices of culture often share much in common with political and business leaders - both a Ponzi scheme and a political campaign are after all "fictions in progress" which require an audience and a fairly complete willing suspension of disbelief. In looking over material drawn from literature, film, television, news media, politics, and academia we'll try to measure the personal and cultural benefits and consequences associated with American culture's embrace of money, its hagiographic celebration of the CEO, its adoration of celebrity culture, and its elevation of the market as an idol.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.nd.edu

Phone Number:

(574) 631-5000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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