The actuary meets Franz Kafka
Print
E-mailAbstract
Most of us don't notice it, but death, math, and insurance play a surprisingly central role in literature and film. Dan Skwire is an actuary, but when he's not performing complex mathematical calculations, he's studying classic authors like Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Daniel Defoe to see how actuarial work manifests itself in art. Writers like Kafka and Wallace Stevens were insurance executives by day, and men of letters by night.
In an interview with The Story, produced by North Carolina Public Radio - WUNC, Dan Skwire talks about some of the articles he’s written on the intersection between literature and actuarial issues.
Listen to the podcast (interview with Dan Skwire starts at 31:12)
Related articles
The literary lives of actuaries
From the office of Franz Kafka
Ed King: Examining Risk and Fate
David Graham Phillips and the Great American Insurance Novel
Secret lives of actuaries: From chick lit to David Foster Wallace
Life, death, and insurance in film noir
The castaway actuary: Financial projects of Daniel Defoe
Uncalculated risks: The working lives of Wallace Stevens
Risk management and the Merchant of Venice
