Title: Enforcing Unbreakable Laws: Detective Fiction and the Rhetoric of Economic Orthodoxy.
Authors: McDonald, Robert Olen
Abstract: This essay studies the "Henry Spearman" detective novel series, wherein a fictional Harvard economist applies economic theory to solve murder cases. Written by professional economists under a pen name, the novels, designed for entertainment and to be assigned to economics courses, espouse a narrow vision of economic common sense through what I call the detective's "economic law enforcement." By interrogating the detective's retroactive construction of symbolic guilt upon suspects, and the authors' use of prosopopœia in verbal debates over economic concepts, it is possible to see how economic orthodoxy is reproduced through the mechanisms of speech.
Subjects: HARVARD University; MYSTERY fiction; ANONYMS & pseudonyms; MURDER investigation; COMMON sense; RHETORIC
Publication: Western Journal of Communication, 2023, Vol 87, Issue 5, p816
ISSN: 1057-0314
Publication type: Academic Journal
DOI: 10.1080/10570314.2022.2155067

Enforcing Unbreakable Laws: Detective Fiction and the Rhetoric of Economic Orthodoxy.

McDonald, Robert Olen