Troværdighedsbobler. Penge, fantasi og virkelighed i Jonathan Swifts "Gullivers rejser"

Mikkel Thorup: “Credibility Bubbles. Money, Fantasy and Reality in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels”This article explores the interrelations between credit and credibility in Jonathan Swift’s well-known satire Gulliver’s Travels. Starting from a sketch of the monetary and financial innovations and developments of the period, most notably the emerging credit market and the collapse of the South Sea Bubble, the article reads Swift as a commentary on the ways in which economic value is increasingly disconnected from material or use references in favor of opinions, fantasies and imaginaries. To be creditworthy, in both the markets of Swift’s time and in his book, is tightly connected to speech, to reassurances of credibility. Credit and credibility are interlocked and the article explores how that interlocking plays out satirically.