Perspektywy badań ekonomicznoliterackich nad literaturą polskiego oświecenia. Rekonesans

The article attempts to outline the potential of applying literary economics research to the literature of the Polish Enlightenment, based on an analysis of the way of understanding the essence and function of money in selected literary works, inspired by Georg Simmel's diagnosis of the ‘calculating nature of modernity’. It also refers to newer concepts considering the nature of money as a sign (by Jochen Hörisch, Marc Shell). The areas indicated in the article as worth reflecting on in the spirit of literary economics include: images of fluctuations in the concept of value and coverage recorded in Enlightenment works; filiations of credit and broadly understood fiction; economic discourse in Enlightenment poetry; the understanding of the ‘sign’ nature of money present in the work of Ignacy Krasicki; the specificity of the literary work of writers-economists. The conducted analyses lead to the conclusion that the literary economics perspective is highly operative in the study of the Enlightenment.