Money, Banks and Business in British and American Literature, Culture and Language / Marek Błaszak

This monograph should be of interest to a wide range of readers because money, banks and business have been an integral part of history of all societies as well as an experience shared by each one of us. The book is divided into two parts - the more extensive part one comprises:
- several texts that follow advancement of capitalist economy in 18th and 19thcentury Britain with all the concurrent developments and problems, involving individuals, communities and societies, as they are reflected in contemporary prose fiction from Defoe, through Jane Austen, Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell and Dinah Craik, to George Meredith and Anthony Trollope; and in a special genre of the so-called it-narratives,
- a chapter devoted to the outstanding present-day Argentine writer Ricardo Piglia who censures greed for money, hypocrisy and corruption,
- another chapter which traces the formation and role of American civil religion.

The second part of the book is devoted to the selected linguistic aspects of human enterprise and contains two chapters, the first of which discusses strategies and methods of effective teaching/learning business English, while the second concentrates on strategies used in translating legal and business texts.

From the Editor 7

Part One: Literature and Culture

Daniel Defoe as an advocate of maritime enterprise, international trade and business. A study of Robinson Crusoe (parts 1 and 2), Captain Singleton, and A New Voyage Round the World - Marek Błaszak 13

"In possession of a good fortune". Money and the question of matrimony in the selected novels of Jane Austen - Bojana Bujwid-Sadowska 29

Business, money and the English gentleman in Victorian novel - Marlena Marciniak 41

"[G]old for the note" and the logic of economic exchange in Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford - Agnieszka Setecka 55

In the company of power. Wealth, society and speculation in Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now - Małgorzata Nitka 67

The anthropology of the modern world in eighteenthand early nineteenth-century money narratives - Joanna Maciulewicz 89

Argentina means silver. Ricardo Piglia's Money to Burn as a critique of the sacralisation of money - Justyna Ziarkowska 103

Money - profi t - salvation. Predicates of American civil religion - Piotr Grabowiec 119

Part Two: Language

'Do you speak business?' On successful teaching ESP to business students and professionals with an advanced level of English - Ewa Bułat 147

The Polish Kodeks spółek handlowych [The Commercial Companies Code] in English. Selected translational and terminological issues - Tomasz P. Górski 163

Notes on the Authors 183