Hardy et l’arithmétique
Little has been written on Hardy and mathematics, although he was a contemporary of Cantor and had certainly heard about Zeno’s paradoxes. However, arithmetics plays an important part in his novels, where the tragic characters are often bad calculators, like Henchard who is bad at figures whereas Fa...
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| Xuất bản năm: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/fathom, |
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| Tác giả chính: | |
| Định dạng: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Ngôn ngữ: | Français |
| Được phát hành: |
FATHOM
2017
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| Những chủ đề: | |
| Truy cập trực tuyến: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:fathom_657 |
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openedition |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:fathom_657 https://doi.org/10.4000/fathom.657 urn:doi:10.4000/fathom.657 fr https://journals.openedition.org/fathom/657 2017-03-10T01:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/gaij All rights reserved Hardy et l’arithmétique FATHOM Association française sur les études sur Thomas Hardy info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2270-6798 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/fathom Ramel, Annie origine humanité inhumanité arithmétique mathématiques mesure limite unité paire vide origin humanity inhumanity arithmetics mathematics measure limit unity pair blank Little has been written on Hardy and mathematics, although he was a contemporary of Cantor and had certainly heard about Zeno’s paradoxes. However, arithmetics plays an important part in his novels, where the tragic characters are often bad calculators, like Henchard who is bad at figures whereas Farfrae is a numerate young man. Keeping measure is a quality inherent in Farfrae, and it should be opposed to the measurelessness of tragic jouissance, as indeed Henchard knows no measure. In A Pair of Blue Eyes, the question of arithmetics underlies the narrative discourse, for Oneness is a key-issue: Knight wants to be Elfride’s first suitor and cannot bear to be “second or third in the field”. If two is omnipresent in the novel (as well as in the “pair” of blue eyes of the title), it is in fact an indivisible entity, another figure of One, which is not the “unary one”, the countable “one” that proceeds from zero and initiates the series of numbers, but the unifying or “unian” one, which has a totalizing function, tends towards the communal, and erases differences. So it seems impossible to count in this novel – or at any rate the succession of numbers only leads to a tragic ending.The “unary” and the “unian” One: the distinction is made by Lacan, who in the seventies was interested in the work of two mathematicians, Peano and Frege. The impossibility of arithmetics in A Pair of Blue Eyes tells us something about what is most human in us (as well as most inhuman): the desire to free oneself from the trammels that hamper ordinary human life, to overstep the limits that confine desire, and to occupy the blank of origin – a space that must be kept vacant for a human being to be able to enter diachrony. Bien peu a été écrit sur Hardy et les mathématiques, bien que celui-ci ait été contemporain de Cantor et qu’il ait sans doute eu connaissance des paradoxes de Zénon. Néanmoins la question de l’arithmétique est posée dans ses romans, où les personnages tragiques sont souvent de mauvais calculateurs, comme Henchard, qui est mal à l’aise avec les chiffres, à l’inverse de Farfrae. La mesure des personnages “comiques” s’oppose à la démesure, à l’insondable de la jouissance tragique. Dans A Pair of Blue Eyes, la question de l’arithmétique se lit en filigrane sous le discours narratif, car c’est l’Un qui importe avant toute chose : Knight veut être le premier auprès d’Elfride et ne supporte pas d’être “second ou troisième”. Si le deux est omniprésent dans le roman (il figure dans la “paire” d’yeux bleus du titre), il est en réalité une entité indivisible, une autre figure du Un, qui n’est pas le “un unaire”, le “un” comptable procédant du zéro et auquel peut succéder toute la série des nombres, mais le “un unien” qui totalise et fait communauté, niant la coupure et la différence. Ainsi il semble impossible de compter dans ce roman – ou tout au moins la suite des nombres ne peut conduire qu’à une issue tragique. Le un “unaire” et le un “unien” ; la distinction est de Lacan, qui dans les années 1970 s’est intéressé aux travaux de deux mathématiciens, Peano et Frege. En réalité l’arithmétique impossible dans A Pair of Blue Eyes nous apprend quelque chose sur ce qui est au cœur de l’humain : le désir de s’affranchir de la loi commune, d’aller au-delà des limites, et de venir occuper la place vide de l’origine – sans laquelle il est impossible à tout homme de s’inscrire dans la diachronie. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Français |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
origine humanité inhumanité arithmétique mathématiques mesure limite unité paire vide origin humanity inhumanity arithmetics mathematics measure limit unity pair blank |
| spellingShingle |
origine humanité inhumanité arithmétique mathématiques mesure limite unité paire vide origin humanity inhumanity arithmetics mathematics measure limit unity pair blank Ramel, Annie Hardy et l’arithmétique |
| description |
Little has been written on Hardy and mathematics, although he was a contemporary of Cantor and had certainly heard about Zeno’s paradoxes. However, arithmetics plays an important part in his novels, where the tragic characters are often bad calculators, like Henchard who is bad at figures whereas Farfrae is a numerate young man. Keeping measure is a quality inherent in Farfrae, and it should be opposed to the measurelessness of tragic jouissance, as indeed Henchard knows no measure. In A Pair of Blue Eyes, the question of arithmetics underlies the narrative discourse, for Oneness is a key-issue: Knight wants to be Elfride’s first suitor and cannot bear to be “second or third in the field”. If two is omnipresent in the novel (as well as in the “pair” of blue eyes of the title), it is in fact an indivisible entity, another figure of One, which is not the “unary one”, the countable “one” that proceeds from zero and initiates the series of numbers, but the unifying or “unian” one, which has a totalizing function, tends towards the communal, and erases differences. So it seems impossible to count in this novel – or at any rate the succession of numbers only leads to a tragic ending.The “unary” and the “unian” One: the distinction is made by Lacan, who in the seventies was interested in the work of two mathematicians, Peano and Frege. The impossibility of arithmetics in A Pair of Blue Eyes tells us something about what is most human in us (as well as most inhuman): the desire to free oneself from the trammels that hamper ordinary human life, to overstep the limits that confine desire, and to occupy the blank of origin – a space that must be kept vacant for a human being to be able to enter diachrony. |
| author |
Ramel, Annie |
| author_facet |
Ramel, Annie |
| author_sort |
Ramel, Annie |
| title |
Hardy et l’arithmétique |
| title_short |
Hardy et l’arithmétique |
| title_full |
Hardy et l’arithmétique |
| title_fullStr |
Hardy et l’arithmétique |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Hardy et l’arithmétique |
| title_sort |
hardy et l’arithmétique |
| publisher |
FATHOM |
| publishDate |
2017 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/fathom |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/fathom.657 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/fathom/657 |
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