Stephen King’s "Needful Things": a dystopian vision of capitalism during its triumph

Mario Cedrini, Joselle Dagnes () and Çinla Akdere
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Joselle Dagnes: UNITO - Università degli studi di Torino = University of Turin
Çinla Akdere: PHARE - Philosophie, Histoire et Analyse des Représentations Économiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, METU - Middle East Technical University [Ankara]

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Abstract: In Stephen King's horror novel Needful Things, a stranger comes to town and opens a shop wherein any inhabitant can find exactly the thing s/he desires most, in exchange for playing "pranks" that cause distress to other members of the community, until the whole town is caught in a war of all against all. The paper analyses the novel as a "satire of Reaganomics," as the author himself happened to describe it. Using insights from economics, economic sociology, and economic anthropology, it aims at demonstrating that the book provides an opportunity to explore the actual and possible evolution of individual behavior in consumer societies, as well as the tensions that such societies engender between ideals of self-realization (via market logics and consumption) and social relationships.

Keywords: social relationships; Consumption; consumer societies; dystopia; economics and literature; reaganomics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-06-03
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Published in Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 2021, 44 (3), pp.341-364. ⟨10.1080/01603477.2021.1932525⟩

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Journal Article: Stephen King’s "Needful Things": a dystopian vision of capitalism during its triumph (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-04012383

DOI: 10.1080/01603477.2021.1932525

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