Abstract
This chapter continues the examination of the relationships between modernist literature and modernist mathematics begun in chapter “Modernist Literature and Modernist Mathematics I: Mathematics and Composition, with Mallarmé, Heisenberg, and Derrida.” That chapter discussed a modernist movement, in literature and mathematics, toward the dominance of thinking in terms of technology, specifically the technology of composition, as against thinking in terms of ontology. This chapter continues the exploration of this movement, focusing on Stéphane Mallarmé’s (1842–1898) theoretical ideas and the philosophy of Alain Badiou (1937–), for whom Mallarmé is a major inspiration as he concerns the role of mathematics in literature and philosophy. There is, however, a crucial difference, which I explore here: Mallarmé’s view of mathematical thinking is technological, compositional, while Badiou’s is ontological.
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Plotnitsky, A. (2021). Modernist Literature and Modernist Mathematics II: Mathematics and Event, with Mallarmé, Gödel, and Badiou. In: Tubbs, R., Jenkins, A., Engelhardt, N. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Literature and Mathematics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55478-1_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55478-1_21
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