Capitalists in the Myst: The Mystery and the Joys in the Free Market

Abstract

The logic and triumph of the free market economy and their propriety to the non-industrialized population of the world, especially the non-Western part of it, have been the subject of many learned discourses. As supporters of the liberal economy continue to insist on the relevance and supremacy of their choice(s), scholars from the developing world have continued to question and call for a re-evaluation, if not a total rejection, of the liberal and neo-liberal rules of economic engagement fostered on them by the West. This paper offers, by a reading of Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood, a rebuttal of the liberal prescriptions of Western economic institutions as contained in Hernando de Soto's The Mystery of Capital, and his explanation of the causes of poverty and governmental inefficiency among the poor peoples of the world. Having used literature to debunk the myth of the joys in the free market, it raises pertinent questions regarding the relationships between literary production, the nation-state, and the rise of global corporate visions in developing countries.


(The Journal of Cultural Studies: 2001 3(2): 385-411)