In legal terms, a windfall is considered an unexpected and unintended gain, oftentimes financial. Borrowing taxonomy from Christine Hurt (2010), I will elaborate on three distinct typologies of windfalls and will further investigate the degrees to which these windfalls are policed and managed within the culture of capital. Billionaires who refuse to leave large inheritances to their children represent an anxiety about gratuitous windfalls. Lottery winners and other forms of gambling fall into the camp of \"earned\" windfalls. Receiving a settlement from a wrongful death lawsuit, as is my own case, will here be considered a classic windfall. Tracing a theoretical line from Max Weber (1958) to David Brooks (2000) that focuses on the cultural logic of capitalism, this thesis attempts to unpack the subjective experience of being the beneficiary of a classic windfall. This thesis does not act as a prescriptive project intended to impose rules and judgments on how a beneficiary should spend their money, but rather takes an analytical approach to understand why the experience of having the money is so fraught to begin with. In meditating on my own experience receiving money as a result of my father's death, I will argue that even money that comes with the least amount of tangible strings possible is incredibly difficult to experience as such. When a windfall results from misfortune and is inexorably tied to a trauma, treating the money in all its profanity becomes increasingly impossible.
"},{"label":"Degree","value":["Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors"]},{"label":"Author-supplied Keywords","value":["Money","Windfall","Capital"]},{"label":"Administrative Note","value":"Drupal Node ID: 24089