In the beginning of Don Quixote, often considered to be the first modern novel, the hidalgo and Sancho arrive at an inn. When Don Quixote is asked to provide payment by the innkeeper (duro, a Spanish coin at the time), he is befuddled. Don Quixote points out that he does not remember knights being asked for money in any of the tales that he had read. The insistent innkeeper makes it clear to Don Quixote that from now on, he really ought to start carrying some money with him wherever he goes. Since this moment in literature, characters in novels have always been very concerned with money (some examples include, but are not limited to, the protagonists of Dickens, Austen, Zola, Balzac, Oller, Pound, as well as reflections by Marx, Mauss, Simmel and Horkheimer). The literary response to the 2008 Global Financial Crisis has been powerful and abundant.

This panel is composed of papers that focus on literature's representations of money and society. The panel's central guiding question is: what can literature teach us about periods of boom and bust, financial crises and the way people understand themselves and the world?

The exploration of money through the lens of literature holds important implications for reflecting on how financial crises shape not only policy but the way people understand themselves and the world, as well as for larger discussions on the state of the humanities. This panel will serve as a reflection of the fact that the humanities as a whole - and literature in particular - stand to illuminate issues and solutions of money and crisis in a way that no other disciplines can. While there have been several studies published on the literature of the financial crisis, both in English as well as in other languages, none has yet addressed the topic from this perspective. Furthermore, the studies to date have tended to concentrate on one particular language and/or region (English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Greek, etc). This panel is focused on common lessons from literature across varied and linguistically plural regions. This is a key approach in our increasingly globalized era that is characterized by completely interdependent financial systems.

The panel will begin with a presentation by Prof. Eleanor Courtemanche, whose paper ("Disambiguating the Crash: Creative Destruction versus Financial Melodrama") will establish the tone for reflections on what literature can tell us about the complex social impact of market booms and busts. Prof. Courtemanche's outline of the history of literature's depiction of the devastation that crisis brings to innocent families (Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, Frank Norris and David Zimmerman) sets an important perspective of financial crisis across time in literature. Moreover, her arguments on the important connection between crisis in literature and melodrama brings forth critical considerations of the capitalist economy as a process of 'creative destruction'. This perspective is key to broader contemporary discourses of crisis, guilt, blame and responsibility.

The second presentation will provide a more theoretical perspective on the issue of capitalism, the state and austerity. Prof. Nektaria Klapaki will use Konstantinos Thetokis' Honor and Money to illustrate a continuum of theoretical debates about the functions of literature written in the aftermath of and during financial crises in Greece. The links she draws across centuries will provide valuable insight into critiques of capitalism that go beyond the geographical borders of Greece. Moreover, this paper will also provide important reflections on gender and commodification within the system of exchange that is at the root of today's modern economy.

The final speaker in the panel will be doctoral student Sam Carter, whose unique insights on the relationship between sound and literary texts lead to a previously unexplored aspect of one of the most famous texts on financial crisis that has been written in the Spanish-speaking world - Julián Martel's La Bolsa (The Stock Market). His paper explores the sonic dimension of this text as part of a larger discussion on how the author trains his readers to be aurally alert to the immigrant presence that was arriving in Argentina before and during the time of its disastrous economic collapse. This paper will put forth an important perspective on discrimination, blame and the immigrant experience in times of financial crisis.

While each of the papers provide their own unique perspective, areas of focus, and primary texts, when they put together, their synergy empowers the panel to become greater than a mere sum of its parts. Each speaker will give a talk of a maximum of 15 minutes, with at least 15 minutes at the end of the session reserved for discussion (questions from the audience, remarks between speakers and/or organizer). Audience members will be able to reflect on what literature can teach us about boom and bust, crisis, and the way we see each other (and the world) when an economy craters.