Journal of Economic Studies in Literature
JESL, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2026, pp.162-170.
Print ISSN: 3107-3492; Online ISSN: 3107-3506
Journal homepage: https://www.jesljournal.com
DOI: https://doi.org/10.64058/jesl260112ivsrd
Idolatry, Value, and Signs: A Review of David Hawkes’s Idols of the Marketplace
Shen Xianmin
Abstract: Idols of the Marketplace offers a new interpretation of early modern English thought by showing how writers from Shakespeare to Bunyan understood the emerging commercialization as conceptually homologous to religious idolatry. Hawkes traces this logic through Aristotelian teleology and the prohibition of idolatry, contending that the violation of natural ends (telos) by human custom (nomos) was seen as a shared problem across economics, aesthetics, theology, and politics. The review summarizes Hawkes’s main argument across nine chapters, places it within debates over Marxist historiography and the economic humanities, and assesses its contributions and limitations. The review concludes that Hawkes’s analysis of representation, value, and signification remains highly relevant to the cultural logic of modern capitalism.
Keywords: idolatry; commodity fetishism; early modern English literature; Marxist historiography; economic humanities
Author Biography: Xianmin Shen, Associate Professor, School of Foreign Studies, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, China. Research direction: contemporary American literature, Ecocriticism, gender studies. E-mail: shen.xianmin@mail.sufe.edu.cn.
标题：偶像、价值与符号：大卫·霍克斯《市场中的偶像》述评
摘要：大卫·霍克斯的《市场中的偶像》揭示了从莎士比亚到班扬的早期英国作家将新兴商业化理解为与宗教偶像崇拜的同构。这一发现为早期现代英国思想提供了新的阐释。霍克斯通过亚里士多德目的论和禁止偶像崇拜的传统追溯这一同构背后的逻辑。他认为人类习俗（nomos）对自然目的（telos）的违背在经济、美学、神学和政治等领域被视为一个共通的问题。本综述概括了霍克斯在九个章节中的主要论点，将其置于马克思主义史学与经济人文学等学科话语体系中，并评估其贡献与局限。本综述认为，霍克斯对表征、价值与指意过程的分析对现代资本主义的文化逻辑具有重要意义。
关键词：偶像崇拜、商品拜物教、早期英国文学、马克思主义史学、经济人文学
作者简介：沈娴敏，上海财经大学外国语学院副教授，研究方向为：当代美国文学、生态批评、性别研究。邮箱：shen.xianmin@mail.sufe.edu.cn。
Received: 01 May 2026 / Revised: 20 May 2026 / Accepted: 05 Jun. 2026 / Published online: 15 Jun. 2026 / Print published: 25 Jun. 2026.
