Imagining a world without poverty: How economic and literary narratives can converge to produce a realist Utopia

Imagining a world without poverty may sadly seem pure utopia. But could economic and literary narratives come together to make this happen? This article sets up a transhistorical dialogue between nineteenth century novels and poor economics as they are practised today by Nobel prizes Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, following a tradition initiated by Albert Hirschman. The interdisciplinary dialogue between nineteenth-century literature and poor economics aims at transforming what may seem a broad utopian dream into something more feasible: this consists in asking practical questions such as whether there are ways for the poor to improve their lives, and what is preventing them from doing so. Through a conversation between literature and economics, we devise what historian Rutger Bregman calls a "utopia for realists" (2017a), in the wake of philosopher John Rawls's idea of "realistic utopia" (1999). Realist utopias are achievable through small steps and with existing human capabilities and institutional conditions. We also draw upon Ruth Levitas's idea of utopia as method (2013).