Social Exchange Theory as a Tool for Understanding Relationships in Fiction: Applications to the Works of Petrus Alfonsi, William Shakespeare, James Joyce, Anne Tyler, and Nick Hornby

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dc.contributor.advisorLeder, Priscilla V.
dc.contributor.authorLancaster, Billy J.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberCohen, Paul N.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberCaldwell, Sally
dc.date.accessioned2011-05-31T20:58:43Z
dc.date.available2011-05-31T20:58:43Z
dc.date.issued2011-05
dc.description.abstractAn analysis of Petrus Alfonsi’s Disciplina Clericalis, William Shakespeare’s, As You Like It, James Joyce’s, Dubliners, Anne Tyler’s, Ladder of Years, and Nick Hornby’s, A Long Way Down, illustrates the nearly universal applicability of social exchange theory as a lens for understanding the motives and relationships of literary characters. An application of theory to fiction within a mimetic context lies at the heart of some of the most popular and important methods for the contemporary interpretation of literature and, by extension, theoretical literary criticism. These mimetic forms, these applications of real-life ideologies, philosophies, and sciences, are part of an ever-expanding list of tools available to literary scholars attempting to draw clearer meanings from texts. Social exchange theory, posited by Homans in “Social Behavior as Exchange” and expounded on in his seminal article’s follow-up, Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms, explains the dynamics of relationships by observing how behavior is traded as a commodity between and among members of a group (two or more) and uses the economic formula of profit equals reward minus cost (P=R-C) to reveal a person’s motives when acting within the group. This thesis adds George Homans’s social exchange theory to the mimetic toolbox of theoretical literary criticism.
dc.description.departmentEnglish
dc.formatText
dc.format.extent98 pages
dc.format.medium1 file (.pdf)
dc.identifier.citationLancaster, B. J. (2011). Social exchange theory as a tool for understanding relationships in fiction: Applications to the Works of Petrus Alfonsi, William Shakespeare, James Joyce, Anne Tyler, and Nick Hornby (Unpublished thesis). Texas State University-San Marcos, San Marcos, Texas.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10877/4129
dc.language.isoen
dc.subjectHomans, George C.
dc.subjectsocial exchange
dc.subjectsocial exchange theory
dc.subjectexchange theory
dc.subjectmimetic context
dc.subjectMimesis
dc.subjectJoyce, James
dc.subjectcounterparts
dc.subjectlittle cloud
dc.subjectDubliners
dc.subjectShakespeare, William
dc.subjectas you like it
dc.subjectJaques
dc.subjecttouchstone
dc.subjectTyler, Anne
dc.subjectladder of years
dc.subjectHornby, Nick
dc.subjecta long way down
dc.subjectliterary criticism
dc.subjectcritical theory
dc.subjectbehavior as exchange
dc.subjectbehavior as social exchange
dc.subjectsocial behavior
dc.titleSocial Exchange Theory as a Tool for Understanding Relationships in Fiction: Applications to the Works of Petrus Alfonsi, William Shakespeare, James Joyce, Anne Tyler, and Nick Hornby
dc.typeThesis
thesis.degree.departmentEnglish
thesis.degree.disciplineLiterature
thesis.degree.grantorTexas State University-San Marcos
thesis.degree.levelMasters
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Arts

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