Economies of Clichés - Toward a Free Market Approach for Describing and Measuring Literary Archetypes and Tropes

Aug 24, 2026

A research proposal develops a free market approach for describing and measuring popular culture archetypes and stereotypes shaped by contemporary digital communications and transmedia narrative economies. It presents an historic overview of libertarian literary theory, then evaluates three measurement systems—crowd-sourced wiki projects, academic classification indices, and corporate marketing research—against division of labor, voluntary exchange, gains from trade, and openness to spontaneous order. The goal is a compact, rigorous framework supporting qualitative and quantitative analysis.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages21

Reading Time53 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Historic overview of libertarian literary theory

Existing systems for measuring archetypes and tropes

Evaluation criteria based on market principles

Proposed dynamic system for qualitative and quantitative study

Methodological and political implications

S Journal of Libertarian Studies Volume 26, No. 1 (2022): XX–XX Economies of Clichés: Toward a Free Market Approach for Describing and Measuring Literary Archetypesand Tropes William A. Hanff1 ABSTRACT: This research proposes a free market approach to describing and measuring popular culture archetypes and stereotypes that result from the contemporary political culture of digital communications and an economic system of transmedia narratives. First, an historic overview of libertarian literary theory is given. Three existing systems of measuring archetypes and tropes are then described: crowd-sourced wiki projects (e.g., TV Tropes), academic classification systems (e.g., Aarne-Thompson index), and corporate marketing research (e.g., Neilsen PRIZM) . Each system is evaluated based on (1) division of labor,(2) voluntary exchange,(3) gains from trade, and (4) openness to spontaneous order. A dynamic combination of aspects these three types of systems can evolve toward a systematized study of archetypes that is flexible enough to accommodate the varied needs of academic researchers, advertising metrics, and pop-culture entrepreneurs. The suggested result would bea compact, economic, rigorous, and predictable system that allows for both qualitative and quantitative measurement, as well as discussion of narrative story units that combine economics, rhetoric, and aesthetics from a libertarian perspective. Litebyrafrryeetry anrket tdhicunkursr, alAstuustdriiesan have been often overlooked economists, and libertarian theorists in the disciplines of philosophy, politics, and economics. But many of the questions that are relevant to the classical liberal William A. Hanff ([WHanff@udc.edu](WHanff@udc.edu)) is assistant professor of mass media at the University of the District of Columbia. 1 Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 License 2 —Journal of Libertarian Studies 26, No. 1 (2022) approach to philosophy, politics, and economics arise from cultural studies and literary theory: What is the exchange value of a good story, a popular character, or an engaging plot twist? Researchers should work to construct a compact, economic, rigorous, and predictable system that allows for both qualitative and quantitative measurement, as well as discussion of narrative story units that combine economics, rhetoric, and aesthetics. The libertarian study of archetypes and aesthetics remains of primary concern to economic thinking and political theory. The economist David Harper states this emphatically: Fostering a deeper appreciation of the aesthetic potential of market systems is not just an idle intellectual curiosity. The aesthetic and experiential aspects of consumption are vital for economic wellbeing and human flourishing. The capacity to interact aesthetically with the world is an important part of what it means to be human. (2020, 77) This is both a methodological claim about knowledge and asocial political claim for improving society. In his influential essay On Fairy Stories, J. R. R. Tolkien makes this liberal, or libertarian, approach clear,“Fantasy remains a human right: we make in our measure and in our derivative mode, because we are made: and not only made, but made in the image and likeness of a Maker”(Tolkien 2001, 56) . Reinforcing this idea, Virginia Postrel sets out to embrace a spontaneous, evolving popular culture: The future we face at the dawn of the 21st century is, like all futures left to themselves,“emergent, complex messiness.” Its “messiness” lies not in disorder, but in an order that is unpredictable, spontaneous, and ever shifting, a pattern created by millions of uncoordinated, independent decisions. (1994, xv) The “emergent, complex messiness” of contemporary media and digital culture recommends a gradual systematization of a classically liberal and libertarian cultural theory including aesthetics, cinema, and archetypes—in order to address and counter (1) the focus on “ideology” encouraged by Ma

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What will the proposed system enable for researchers and practitioners?

The suggested framework supports both qualitative and quantitative measurement and enables discussion of narrative story units combining economics, rhetoric, and aesthetics from a libertarian perspective.

Aug 24, 2026

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