Eat the Rich: Queering Class and Money in Saltburn

This chapter examines Emerald Fennell's Saltburn (2023) as a class-conscious fable that deploys queerness to critique orthodox monetary systems and the neoliberal myth of social mobility in Britain. Drawing on Modern Monetary Theory, and the Money on the Left collective's argument that "money is queer," the chapter reads protagonist Oliver Quick as an embodiment of the contradictions inherent in late-capitalist Britain. Through analysis of the film's rich intertextual genealogy — encompassing Brideshead Revisited, The Talented Mr Ripley, Howards End, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show — the chapter argues that Saltburn's antisocial queer antihero exposes the zero-sum logic underpinning both British class structure and orthodox economic theory, offering audiences a cathartic, if deeply ambivalent, fantasy of systemic subversion.