ENGL 200 D: Reading Literature: Literature in the Marketplace

I’ve made annotations throughout the sections you’re being asked to read for tomorrow. Ch. 1 is a bit long, Ch. 2 is quite short; the reading from Ch. 3 is very short, and in Ch. 5, I’m asking you to read a section from the beginning, and from the end, which I’ve marked with post-it notes in Diigo. There are two parts from ch. 5 that I’d like you to read.

We’ll talk briefly about the principles/statements that Smith makes about the way that labour works, and value works, but there are two major questions that I’d really like you to think about:

1. Can labour be property? (If not, why not? If so, what kind of property can it be? What are the limits for using it?)

2. Think back to Joseph Addison’s short essay on genius. Addison imagines a very different world from that of Smith’s. Is there any place for genius in The Wealth of Nations? When you think about the sort of work that genius might involve, do you see similarities in TWoN? Differences? What are they?

Remember to be ready to cite the specific section or paragraph of your source!