1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910684570103321

Autore

Engelhardt Nina

Titolo

Modernism, fiction and mathematics / / Nina Engelhardt

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Edinburgh : , : Edinburgh University Press, , 2019

ISBN

1-4744-4965-4

1-4744-1625-X

1-4744-1624-1

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (ix, 188 pages)

Collana

Edinburgh Critical Studies in Modernist Culture

Disciplina

809.9112

Soggetti

Modernism (Literature) - History and criticism

Mathematics in literature

Mathematics and literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Previously issued in print: 2018.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- SERIES EDITORS’ PREFACE -- LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS -- INTRODUCTION: ALL THAT COUNTS – MODERNISM, FICTION, MATHEMATICS -- 1 MATHEMATICS AND POLITICS: THOMAS PYNCHON, AGAINST THE DAY -- 2 MATHEMATICS, LANGUAGE, STRUCTURE: HERMANN BROCH, THE SLEEPWALKERS -- 3 MATHEMATICS, EPISTEMOLOGY, ETHICS: ROBERT MUSIL, THE MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES -- 4 MATHEMATICS AND FICTION: THOMAS PYNCHON, GRAVITY’S RAINBOW -- CONCLUSION: MODERNISM, FICTION AND MATHEMATICS -- GLOSSARY -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX

Sommario/riassunto

Modernism in mathematics - this unusual notion turns out to provide a new perspective on central questions in and beyond literary modernism. Contrasting 'mathematical fictions' from and about the heyday of mathematical modernism, this text relates literary engagements with mathematical modernism to the wider context of modernist critiques of Enlightenment values and postmodern reassessments of modernist patterns. The analysis of canonical works by Thomas Pynchon, Hermann Broch, and Robert Musil demonstrates how mathematics is accorded a central role as a particularly telling indicator of modernist transformations, and how imaginative



illustrations contribute to establishing mathematics as part of modernist culture.