Speculative Finance and Narrative Tension

Produits financiers et récits spéculatifs

Boris Le Roy ()
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Boris Le Roy: CIELAM - Centre Interdisciplinaire d'Étude des Littératures d'Aix-Marseille - AMU - Aix Marseille Université, AMU ALLSH - Aix-Marseille Université - Faculté des Arts, Lettres, Langues et Sciences Humaines - AMU - Aix Marseille Université, Académie d'Aix-Marseille

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Abstract: This article explores the parallels between contemporary speculative finance and narrative theory, arguing that financial instruments rely on mechanisms akin to narrative tension. Through a fictionalized scenario, it draws an analogy between the pricing of financial options—particularly the Black–Scholes model—and the cognitive processes by which readers anticipate, revise, and project possible outcomes in a narrative. Drawing on cognitive narratology (surprise, curiosity, suspense) and on philosophical and literary references (Aristotle, Mallarmé, Mark Fisher, Donna Haraway), the article suggests that narratives, including speculative and science-fictional forms, provide valuable tools for thinking about economic uncertainty, systemic risk, and contemporary collapse, beyond the limits of purely mathematical models.

Keywords: performativité; finance spéculative; Anthropocène; effondrement; produits dérivés; science-fiction; fiction spéculative; narratologie cognitive; tension narrative; récit; Black-Scholes; modèles économiques; probabilité; incertitude (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-12-16
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://amu.hal.science/hal-05494064v1
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Published in Science-fiction et imaginaires du risque, (Réseau Chronos & revue ReS Futurae, Paris), Dec 2025, Paris, France

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05494064

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