In the economics literature, you can see that statistical and econometric methods and often the same indicators are used as variables. These methods, which consist of only numerical data, may be insufficient to explain economic phenomena. According to some, these methods are insufficient to reflect the facts. Heterodox understanding and other approaches, which emerged as alternatives in line with these views, benefit from experimental, behavioral, environmental and historical indicators. The most recent of these is the movements of economics in literature.
Economics in literature includes a method of analysis in which economic indicators of the periods of literary works are used. In some of these works, it is possible to have information about the economic facts of the period, but the economic indicators in the novels are much more realistic and detailed compared to epics, poems and theatre. For this reason, novels are mostly preferred as data sources in economic analyzes based on literary indicators.
Many novels in world literature contain economic indicators. For example, such phenomena as capital accumulation, unfair distribution of income, exploitation of labor, child and migrant labor, in Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Jhon Steinbeck's Mice and People, Jack London's People of The Abyss, and even Goethe's Faust contain economic analysis both for the period in which they were written and beyond their period. The new world of Robinson Crosoe, the accountant who lived alone on a deserted island and rebuilt the institutions of modern life on this island, or the tragic adventures of George Milton and Lennie Small, who showed us every detail of unemployment and scarcity during the Great Depression, are a testament to how economics and literature are intertwined. There are many examples in Turkish literature, but some works that are known by everyone may have constituted great examples for researchers. Fakir Baykurt's novel "Turtles" and almost all of Yaşar Kemal's novels describe agricultural workers, landowners and brokers. It explains in such detail that you can have detailed information about the cotton prices of the period.
Making economic analysis with literary works in which we can find both macroeconomic and microeconomic indicators is a method that challenges criticism a lot. The fact that novels contain fiction due to their nature and the political views of the authors shape what they write are just some of these criticisms. However, the results of statistical and econometric analyzes can also be shaped by the views of economists. However, all this does not mean that reading these works from an economist's point of view and making analyzes with the indicators they contain is completely useless and refutable.
Resources:
https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/1289123
Res. Asst. Merve Tosun
