Cooking The Books

Anna Kassulke provides a penetrating scrutiny of the most globally important concept of our time: money. Dr. Kassulke has gathered together a rich selection of money stories and characters, and shows how they function in terms of both our social relations as well as our psychological and cognitive makeup.

Money was invented when human beings minted coins. Then we printed paper money, and now we have e-cash. Or so the fiction of money's origins would have it. Dr. Kassulke unveils the purely mythological status money has in contemporary Western societies. She presents a wide range of concepts attached to money in its various forms, from coins to paper to e-cash. Examples are drawn from children's literature, popular novels, films, advertising, biographies, financial journalism, political-economic theory, and sociology.

With considerable sensitivity to both textual analysis and historical context, Kassulke provides a penetrating scrutiny of the most globally important concept of our time: money. She pinpoints how money's mythologies determine social relations as well as subjectivity. Perceptive, lucid, and elegant, Cooking the Books exposes an important area of cultural activity that will be of great interest to scholars and students in cultural studies, communications studies, and comparative literature.

Unveils the mythological status money has in contemporary Western societies.

Booknews

This book elucidates how money is seen to have far-reaching cultural effects, even though, or perhaps because, it is poorly delineated as a concept. Drawing from semiotic, post-modern, and Marxist theories, the book examines the role of money in symbolic, historical, and ideological frameworks. Its treatment is analyzed as it appears in childrens stories, literature, the work of classical economists, and in other cultural contexts. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

ANNA KASSULKE is a writer and cultural critic living in London and Brisbane.