Abstract
Contemporary American novels dramatize the complexity of corporate intentionality, offering unique insights into the unsettled questions of how and what corporations mean when they act. Exploring Sloan Wilson's idea, in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1955), that the corporation desires a form of autobiography, this article then examines how Richard Powers's Gain (1998) and Joshua Ferris's Then We Came to the End (2008) use innovative formal strategies to write the narratives of corporate entities at various life stages. Autobiography and biography operate as powerful heuristic frames to evaluate the essential will of the legal corporate person. Employing formal and generic features of the life story, novels articulate the nature of collective subjectivities while uncovering what legal and business ethics debates can miss.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
