The Library
The five games of Mr Edgar Allan Poe : a study of strategic thought in “The Purloined Letter”
Tools
Tools
Tools
Read, Daniel (2020) The five games of Mr Edgar Allan Poe : a study of strategic thought in “The Purloined Letter”. Rationality and Society, 32 (4). pp. 369-401. doi:10.1177/1043463120961779
|
PDF
WRAP-Five-games-Mr-Edgar-Allan-Poe-strategic-thought-The-Purloined-Letter-Read-2020.pdf - Published Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Download (245Kb) | Preview |
|
![[img]](http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png) |
PDF
WRAP-Five-games-Mr-Edgar-Allan-Poe-strategic-thought-The-Purloined-Letter-Read-2020.pdf - Accepted Version Embargoed item. Restricted access to Repository staff only - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (1230Kb) |
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/1043463120961779
Abstract
This paper investigates strategic thinking in the fictional world of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Purloined Letter’. This short story has been rightly celebrated for its explicit analysis of strategic reasoning in which players attempt to outwit one another, which involves accounting for how they are all attempting to outwit one another. I differ from previous analyses by examining how the actors can often be wrong in their explicit analysis and consider the strategic actions they take rather than those they claim to take. Using elementary game theory, I describe the five games (and suggest a sixth) that make up the strategic heart of the story. These include games of signalling, screening, negotiation, revenge and a unique game called the ‘pincer’. I consider how literary sources like ‘The Purloined Letter’ can provide insights into the applicability of strategic analysis in the ‘real world’.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory | ||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Behavioural Science Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School |
||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Economics -- Psychological aspects, Game theory, Decision making -- Econometric models | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Rationality and Society | ||||||
| Publisher: | Sage Publications Ltd. | ||||||
| ISSN: | 1043-4631 | ||||||
| Official Date: | 2020 | ||||||
| Dates: |
|
||||||
| Volume: | 32 | ||||||
| Number: | 4 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 369-401 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1177/1043463120961779 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Publisher Statement: | Posted ahead of print. Read, Daniel (2020) The five games of Mr Edgar Allan Poe : a study of strategic thought in “The Purloined Letter”. Rationality and Society . (In Press) Copyright © 2020 (Copyright Holder). Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications. DOI: [DOI] | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Open Access | ||||||
| RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
|
||||||
| Related URLs: |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
