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Single Idea 9814

[filed under theme 21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 8. The Arts / b. Literature ]

Full Idea

Like every great poet, Mallarmé was engaged in a tacit rivalry with mathematics.

Gist of Idea

All great poetry is engaged in rivalry with mathematics

Source

Alain Badiou (Mathematics and Philosophy: grand and little [2004], p.20)

Book Ref

Badiou,Alain: 'Theoretical Writings' [Continuum 2006], p.20


A Reaction

I love these French pronouncements! Would Mallarmé have agreed? If poetry and mathematics are the poles, where is philosophy to be found?


The 11 ideas with the same theme [philosophical aspects of literature]:

Without the surface decoration, poetry shows only appearances and nothing of what is real [Plato]
Poetry is more philosophic than history, as it concerns universals, not particulars [Aristotle]
Tragedies are versified sufferings of people impressed by externals [Epictetus]
Homer wrote to show that the most blessed men can be ruined by poor judgement [Epictetus]
For poets free choice is supreme [Schlegel,F]
Literature is the most important aspect of culture, because it teaches understanding of living [Murdoch]
The author function of any text is a plurality of selves [Foucault, by Gutting]
All great poetry is engaged in rivalry with mathematics [Badiou]
Storytelling is never neutral; some features of the world must be emphasised [Nussbaum]
Wallace Stevens is the greatest philosophical poet of the twentieth century in English [Critchley]
The hermeneutic circle is between the reader's self-understanding, and the world of the text [Zimmermann,J]