Object's details: The Mathematics in a Dramatic Text – A Disappearing Number by Complicite

Provider:Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego

Description

Title:
The Mathematics in a Dramatic Text – A Disappearing Number by Complicite
Creator:
Wiśniewski, Tomasz
Contributor:
Kazik, Joanna;
Mirowska, Paulina;
University of Gdańsk, Institute of English and American Studies;
Tomasz Wiśniewski teaches in the Institute of English and American Studies at the University of Gdańsk, Poland. He is the author of Kształt literacki dramatu Samuela Becketta (The Literary Shape of Samuel Beckett’s Dramatic Works; Kraków, 2006) and several articles on modern literature and theatre. These have been published in France, Great Britain, Austria, Brazil, USA, and Poland. He has (co-)edited four books and A Between Almanach for the Year 2013. He is on the editorial board of the scholarly quarterly Tekstualia (Warsaw) and the literary bimonthly Topos (Sopot). He is artistic director of the project BETWEEN.POMIĘDZY, which organizes literary/theatre festivals, academic seminars and theatre workshops.
Description:
A Disappearing Number gives vent to Simon McBurney’s fascination with science, in this case with mathematics. The story of the mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan constituted the groundwork for the collective theatrical production whose literary “translation” was published by Oberon Books in 2007. This article investigates the ways in which the text de-automatises dramatic conventions. On the one hand, the text, as a literary record of the theatrical production, seems to be an intersemiotic translation of the “original,” which suggests its secondary, derivative character, but, on the other hand, because of its status as a dramatic text, A Disappearing Number enters the sphere of literature which is intrinsically subordinated to the powers of imagination. In this way, it is argued, Complicite associates mathematics with art (literature): these are the spheres where imagination is of the greatest importance. This is made explicitly apparent in the characters’ utterances and in various textual strategies. A Disappearing Number begins, for example, with an explanation of a mathematical concept provided by Ruth, a lecturer, in a “university lecture hall.” The explanation is followed by a strictly meta-theatrical greeting of the audience. The illusion of the stage is emphasised as much as the immutable nature of mathematical reality at this point. The function of mathematics is not restricted to the thematic dimension of the play; mathematical principles are also decisive for the construction of the model of the world. Simultaneity of action, for instance, reflects the complicated nature of certain equations, the Great War is associated with the number of its victims, Ramanujan’s death is shown on stage through a metaphorical subtraction and the passing of the number zero, and even the title suggests some equivalence between a number and a life of a human being.;
Udostępnienie publikacji Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego finansowane w ramach projektu „Doskonałość naukowa kluczem do doskonałości kształcenia”. Projekt realizowany jest ze środków Europejskiego Funduszu Społecznego w ramach Programu Operacyjnego Wiedza Edukacja Rozwój; nr umowy: POWER.03.05.00-00-Z092/17-00.
Object availability:
free access
Rights: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 ;
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Międzynarodowe
Date:
2019.06.10;
2013
Type:
Book chapter
Language:
English
Format:
application/pdf;
image/jpeg
Publisher:
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Relation:
Kazik J., Mirowska P. (red.), Studies in English Drama and Poetry vol. 3. Reading subversion and transgression, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, Łódź 2013;;
Studies in English Drama and Poetry;;
3
Subject:
mathematics in a dramatic text;
A Disappearing Number;
Complicite
Identifier:
Wiśniewski T., The Mathematics in a Dramatic Text – A Disappearing Number by Complicite, [w:] Studies in English Drama and Poetry vol. 3. Reading subversion and transgression, Kazik J., Mirowska P. (red.), Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, Łódź 2013, s. 105-114, doi: 10.18778/7525-994-0.09;
978-83-7525-994-0;
http://hdl.handle.net/11089/28800 ;
10.18778/7525-994-0.09
Data provider:
Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego

Similar objects

The Mathematics in a Dramatic Text – A Disappearing Number by Complicite

Creator:Wiśniewski, Tomasz

Date:2019.06.10 | 2013

Type:text

Processes of incoming, settlement and disappearance of individuals and variations in the numbers of small rodents; Procesy nachodzenia, osiedlania się i ubywania osobników a dynamika liczebności drobnych gryzoni

Creator:Andrzejewski, R.

Date:1963.12.31 | 1963

Type:other

Zombies or still alive. Who took advantage of COVID-19 state aid?

Creator:Wiśniewski, Tomasz.

Date:2022

Type:image

Błędy szacowania kosztu kapitału w decyzjach inwestycyjnych i ich skutki

Creator:Wiśniewski, Tomasz

Date:2008.12.31 | 2008

Type:image

Wycena szpitala po komercjalizacji

Creator:Wiśniewski, Tomasz

Date:2010.12.31 | 2010

Type:image

Theory of history in a planetary age. Tomasz Wiśniewski in conversation with Dipesh Chakrabarty

Creator:Wiśniewski, Tomasz

Date:2024.02.20

Type:text

Methodology and theory of history and their visibility in Poland

Creator:Wiśniewski, Tomasz

Date:2024.12.27

Type:image

Олег Беген, Олександр Зайцев, Василь Стефанів, Націоналізм і релігія: Греко-Католицька Церква та український націоналістичний рух у Галичині (1920–1930-ті роки), Lwów 2011, ss. 384

Creator:Wiśniewski, Tomasz

Date:2014.06.06

Type:text

Federacja Bibliotek Cyfrowych

Object's details: The Mathematics in a Dramatic Text – A Disappearing Number by Complicite

Description

Similar objects