Lottery Fantasies, Follies, and Controversies - by Johanne Slettvoll Kristiansen & Marius Warholm Haugen & Angela Fabris (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The volume explores the way in which the lottery was imagined in early-modern and long-eighteenth-century Europe. It presents a series of interconnected case studies from Denmark-Norway, the German-speaking areas, Britain, the Low Countries, France, Italy, and Spain, which bring into dialogue a wide range of materials: lottery tickets and advertisements, visual art, prose fiction and plays, political, moral, and judicial treatises.

This material suggests how early-modern and long-eighteenth-century lotteries were perceived as inviting fantasies, dreams, and daydreams; as engendering folly, superstition, and compulsive playing; as leading to social misery, bankruptcy, and suicide; as betraying questions of risk, trust, and fairness; and as being deeply embedded in the political and financial development of an emerging modernity.

About the Author

Johanne Slettvoll Kristiansen and Marius Warholm Haugen, Department of Language and Literature, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway; Angela Fabris, Department of Romance Studies, Klagenfurt University, Austria.