This volume brings together essays on the relations between fiction and the economy, all established or emergent scholars from different fields of expertise. The essays range widely in their respective foci, extending beyond purely literary studies to encompass history, the history of language, studies in the visual arts, and philosophy.Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction: Fiction and Economy; S.Bruce & V.Wagner Supreme Fictions: Money and Words as Commodifying Signifiers; R.Waswo Trafficking Words; M.Bridges The Stain of the Signature; P.de Bolla Semiotics and Economics; G.Colaizzi & J.Talens 'Parties in Converse': Literary and Economic Dialogue in Michael Almereyda's Hamlet ; M.Thornton Burnett The Fabric of Society: Money, Cloth and Symbolic Exchanges in Njal's Saga ; F.L.Michelet 'There's none/ Can truly say he gives, if he receives': Timon of Athens and the Possibilities of Generosity, or, The Gift of a Stranger; S.Bruce Spend, Spend, Spend: Expenditure and Waste in Hegel, Bataille, Derrida; R.Sellars Towards a General Economics of Cinema; B.Bennett IndexBRUCE BENNETT Lecturer in Film Studies at the Institute for Cultural Research of the University of Lancaster, UKMARGARET BRIDGES Professor in the Department of English Languages and Literatures, University of Berne, SwitzerlandMARK THORNTON BURNETT Professor of Renaissance Studies, Queen's University, Belfast, UKGIULIA COLAIZZI Associate Professor of Communication and Gender Studies, University of Valencia, SpainPETER DE BOLLA Reader in Cultural History and Aesthetics, University of Cambridge, UKFABIENNE L. MICHELET Teaches medieval literature at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and the University of Fribourg, SwitzerlandROY SELLARS Senior Lecturer in the Department of English and Danish, University of Southern DenmarkJENARO TALENS Professor of Hispanic and Comparative Literature and European Studies, University of Geneva, SwitzerlandRICHARD WASWO Professor Emeritus of English, UnilS(