Hamilton, Valerie (Researcher in business) (2013) Moll Flanders and the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street : projects of a projecting age. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

A novel and an organization would generally be regarded as polar opposites: one deals in
fiction, the other in economic realities. This thesis explores the proposition that the novel
and the organization share fundamental characteristics of form, function and technique:
they work in the same way. The proposition is explored by comparing the emergence of an
early English novel, Moll Flanders (1722), and an early English modern organization, the
Bank of England (1694). Moll is recognised as significant in the process of the beginning of
the form of the English novel; I argue that the Bank can be approached as a primary model
of the form of the organization. Building upon Timothy Clark’s exploration of the nature of
inspiration1, the thesis argues that ‘the space of composition’, the period from which they
emerged, sometimes called the Age of Projects (1680-1720), is inherent in, and inherited by
the form of the novel and the organization respectively. They are projects of a projecting
age. The metaphor of the project is taken from Defoe’s Essay Upon Projects (1697) and is
used as an interdisciplinary lens through which to reconstitute an intimate relationship
between the novel and the organization. The thesis is itself understood as a project
bringing a reflexive and experiential dimension to the narrative.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HG Finance P Language and Literature > PR English literature
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731. Fortunes and misfortunes of the famous Moll Flanders -- Criticism and interpretation, Bank of England -- History -- 18th century, Organizational change -- England -- History -- 18th century
Official Date:	March 2013
Dates:	Date Event March 2013 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Warwick Business School
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Royle, Nicholas; Noble, Dorothea; Parker, Martin, 1962-
Extent:	226 leaves.
Language:	eng

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