Decoding the bubble: popular magic, financial deception and Eliza Haywood's Memoirs of a Certain Island Adjacent to Utopia
Decoding the bubble: popular magic, financial deception and Eliza Haywood's Memoirs of a Certain Island Adjacent to Utopia
Readings of Eliza Haywood’s South Sea Bubble narrative, Memoirs of a Certain Island Adjacent of Utopia, have traditionally interpreted the wizard Lucitario (thought by some to be James Craggs) as a powerful magical figure. However, the early part of the long eighteenth century witnessed a profound change in understandings of the supernatural, including reframing those who claimed to practise magic as, essentially, confidence tricksters. This essay provides a re-reading of Haywood’s text to shed fresh light on contemporary views of the Bubble and its aftermath, bringing it into line with contemporary understandings of magic and depicting those at the heart of the South Sea debacle as little more than con men.
finance and banking, Eighteenth Century, South Sea Bubble, witchcraft, Eliza Haywood, Witchcraft Act 1737
111-129
Daniell, Alison
b1bb9317-db47-41c8-ad81-ab30fcf14565
Daniell, Alison
b1bb9317-db47-41c8-ad81-ab30fcf14565
Daniell, Alison
(2023)
Decoding the bubble: popular magic, financial deception and Eliza Haywood's Memoirs of a Certain Island Adjacent to Utopia.
In,
Paul, Helen, Di Liberto, Nicholas and Coffman, D'Maris
(eds.)
The Bubble Act: New Perspectives from Passage to Repeal and Beyond.
(Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance)
UK.
Palgrave Macmillan, .
(doi:10.1007/978-3-031-31894-8_6).
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Book Section
Abstract
Readings of Eliza Haywood’s South Sea Bubble narrative, Memoirs of a Certain Island Adjacent of Utopia, have traditionally interpreted the wizard Lucitario (thought by some to be James Craggs) as a powerful magical figure. However, the early part of the long eighteenth century witnessed a profound change in understandings of the supernatural, including reframing those who claimed to practise magic as, essentially, confidence tricksters. This essay provides a re-reading of Haywood’s text to shed fresh light on contemporary views of the Bubble and its aftermath, bringing it into line with contemporary understandings of magic and depicting those at the heart of the South Sea debacle as little more than con men.
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More information
e-pub ahead of print date: 1 July 2023
Keywords:
finance and banking, Eighteenth Century, South Sea Bubble, witchcraft, Eliza Haywood, Witchcraft Act 1737
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 489405
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/489405
PURE UUID: 5601afbe-b3d8-4c56-b514-3cf62706ec76
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Date deposited: 23 Apr 2024 16:48
Last modified: 23 Apr 2024 16:48
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Contributors
Author:
Alison Daniell
Editor:
Helen Paul
Editor:
Nicholas Di Liberto
Editor:
D'Maris Coffman
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