Martin Bronfenbrenner wrote a novel based on his experience as a soldier in post-war Japan: “Tomioka Stories” (1975).
The book is quite rare to find, but the content is very interesting. Bronfenbrenner was a smart observer and he understood many things of Japanese culture that are hard to grasp for Western people. Moreover, his wit and irony make the book a pleasant reading.
Anna
P.S. I am thinking of writing something on “Tomioka Stories” for the Italian Association of Japanese Studies, but maybe it will be interesting also for history of economics.
Il giorno 19 set 2021, alle ore 20:01, Rafael Galvão <[log in to unmask]> ha scritto:
I also appreciated the episode, the intersection between economics and literature - and works of fiction in general - is something that has a lot of potential. Stephen Zillak's article on haiku economics made me think of a related question that I want to ask the list: how many economists are also novelists, or creators of content that uses fictional narratives in general, like moviemakers (movies that tell a fictional story, not documentaries), scriptwriters and so on?
I mean, one might think that economists shouldn't be novelists, but Isaac Asimov revolutionized science fiction and was a professor of biochemistry at Boston University. What stops an economist from doing something similar to Asimov? It doesn't need to revolutionize a field (especially because Asimov was also an uncommon case, he had to divide his academic and writing work, to the point his short stories are considered better written than his novels because he had more time to revise and edit them), just to become known enough. Even novelists who write on economic themes weren't trained as economists (from both extremes of the politico-economic spectrum, neither Edward Bellamy nor Ayn Rand had any training as an economist)
Therefore, do you know any examples of people trained as economists who are also writers, or content creators in general?
In addition to Stephen Zillak and his work in haiku, I can think of Kenneth Elzinga, who wrote a trilogy of mystery novels following a detective that uses the economic method to decipher the cases; the volume "Strange Economics: Economic Speculative Fiction" also has some stories written by economists; from the time of political economy, I'm not sure if Daniel Defoe would qualify as a political economist, but an article I read recently ("The Invisible Hand of Fairies: Post-Mercantilism and Magnanimity in Women's Fairy Tales of the 1690s", by Benjamin Balak and Charlotte Trinquet du Lys) mentions how fairytale writer Charles Perrault also was an aide to Colbert and mercantilist elements are present in his fairytales.
Em qui., 16 de set. de 2021 às 13:19, Steve Ziliak <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> escreveu:
Very nice! Thank you for bringing attention to economics and literature.
Here are several papers and links of possible interest to economists
and historians teaching with literature. I have been teaching econ and
lit at different institutions since 1996.
Ziliak, S.T. "Pauper Fiction in Economic Science: Paupers in Almshouses and
the Odd Fit of Oliver Twist," Review of Social Economy (2002,
winner of the 2002 ASA Helen Potter Award).
https://www.jstor.org/stable/29770152
Pauper Fiction in Economic Science: 'Paupers in Almshouses' and the Odd Fit of 'Oliver Twist' - JSTOR<https://www.jstor.org/stable/29770152>
PAUPER FICTION IN ECONOMIC SCIENCE In some very few instances, among which Southwell, in Nottinghamshire, is pre? eminent, the workhouse appears to be a place in which the aged and impotent are
www.jstor.org<http://www.jstor.org>
Ziliak, S.T., "Introduction to Economics with The Grapes of Wrath":
https://blogs.roosevelt.edu/sziliak/economics-and-the-grapes-of-wrath/
[X]<https://blogs.roosevelt.edu/sziliak/economics-and-the-grapes-of-wrath/>
The Grapes of Wrath | Stephen T. Ziliak's Library of Oomph & Precision<https://blogs.roosevelt.edu/sziliak/economics-and-the-grapes-of-wrath/>
Curious about Stephen T. Ziliak’s Grapes of Wrath-based introduction to economics?. In November 2011, about 70 Harvard students joined together in protest against Greg Mankiw’s introduction to economics course, which Mankiw famously teaches at Harvard College. After the student walk out on Mankiw, the Institute for New Economic Thinking went in search of alternative instruction.
blogs.roosevelt.edu<http://blogs.roosevelt.edu>
Ziliak, S.T. (2009, free access), "Haiku Economics: Little Teaching Aids for Big Economic Pluralists," Intl. Jnl. of
Pluralism in Economic Education:
https://www.inderscience.com/info/inarticle.php?artid=28969
Here is a fun and productive game to play with students or colleagues, "Renganomics." That's Renga, not Reagan.
Renga poetry competitions are, as we show, grounded in economics, economic poetry, and ritual:
Ziliak, S.T., Samuel Barbour, et al., "The Spontaneous Order of Words: Economics Experiments in Haiku and Renga," Intl. Jnl. of
Pluralism in Economic Education:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2437052
The Spontaneous Order of Words: Economics Experiments in Haiku and Renga by Stephen Ziliak, Samuel Barbour, Cathleen Vasquez, Joseph Molina, Jacob Lundquist, Cameron Simak, Morgan Higgs :: SSRN<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2437052>
The search is on for low cost collaborative learning models that foster creative cooperation and growth through spontaneous competition. I propose that a tradi
papers.ssrn.com<http://papers.ssrn.com>
and https://blogs.roosevelt.edu/sziliak/haiku-economics-by-roosevelt-students/
<Outlook-kxcj1cmm.jpg>
Stephen T. Ziliak
Professor of Economics & Faculty Member of the
Social Justice Studies Program, Roosevelt University
Antiracism Task Force, American Statistical Association
430 South Michigan Ave
Chicago IL 60605 USA
https://blogs.roosevelt.edu/sziliak
(312) 341-3763
________________________________
From: Societies for the History of Economics <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Jennifer Jhun <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2021 1:13 PM
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Subject: [SHOE] Episode 48 - Smith and Marx walk into a bar podcast
[CAUTION: This email originated from outside Roosevelt University. Only click links or open attachments if you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.]
Dear colleagues,
We are glad to inform you that the latest episode of 'Smith and Marx walk into a bar: a history of economics podcast' is out: https://hetpodcast.libsyn.com/episode-forty-eight<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://hetpodcast.libsyn.com/episode-forty-eight__;!!CkzWtAV3CRQ!7H-_x3AsHXdpG4C_Jtev0SVBPdjHbfj6IXMsA6RfyUQ7UBFFv7geC8h8Gsw_HJVci1s$>
This week’s guest is Çınla Akdere, Assistant Professor of Economics at Middle East Technical University in Ankara (and new co-host of Smith and Marx Walk into a Bar). We chat about the relationship between economics and literature, the use of literature as a tool for teaching economics, and the economic significance of various of the works of Charles Dickens and Stephen King.
Best wishes,
Scott, Carlos, and Jenn