Call for Papers

The conference organizers invite papers that explore from any of the above perspectives the interactions between commerce and literature across the long eighteenth century, in England and/or France and their respective colonies. Comparative studies are particularly welcome. Possible topics might include:

• The book trade: in what ways was the book trade integral to commercial society, offering a vital conduit for the commerce of ideas, including ideas on trade, that in turn fostered networks and attitudes conducive to finance and trade? What impact did the commerce of literature have on the national economy?
  
  
• The diverse literatures of commerce and their interactions: merchant handbooks, histories of civil society, economic philosophy, pamphlets...
  
  
• Reflections on commerce within imaginative literature: what roles are played by plays, poetry, the novel in assimilating, promoting or contesting commercial society? in shaping the profile of the professional author? how are these imaginative genres shaped by market forces?
  
  
• Anglo-French connections: trading contacts, commercial and financial rivalries, practices of emulation...

Venue