Houghton EC85 Ab264 884f - Flatland, men and women doors

Mathematical fiction is a genre of creative fictional work in which mathematics and mathematicians play important roles. The form and the medium of the works are not important. The genre may include poems, short stories, novels or plays; comic books; films, videos, or audios. One of the earliest, and much studied, work of this genre is Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, an 1884 satirical novella by the English schoolmaster

Edwin Abbott Abbott Edwin Abbott Abbott (20 December 1838 – 12 October 1926) was an English schoolmaster, theologian, and Anglican priest, best known as the author of the novella ''Flatland'' (1884). Biography Edwin Abbott Abbott was the eldest son of ...

. Mathematical fiction may have existed since ancient times, but it was recently rediscovered as a genre of literature; since then there has been a growing body of literature in this genre, and the genre has attracted a growing body of readers. For example, Abbot's Flatland spawned a sequel in the 21st century: a novel titled ''

Flatterland ''Flatterland'' is a 2001 book written by mathematician and science popularizer Ian Stewart about non-Euclidean geometry. It was written as a sequel to ''Flatland'', an 1884 novel that discussed different dimensions. Plot summary Almost 100 ...

'', authored by Ian Stewart and published in 2001.

A database of mathematical fiction

Alex Kasman, a Professor of Mathematics at

College of Charleston The College of Charleston (CofC or Charleston) is a public university in Charleston, South Carolina. Founded in 1770 and chartered in 1785, it is the oldest university in South Carolina, the 13th oldest institution of higher learning in the Unit ...

, who maintains a database of works that could possibly be included in this genre, has a broader definition for the genre: Any work "containing mathematics or mathematicians" has been treated as mathematical fiction. Accordingly, ''

Gulliver's Travels ''Gulliver's Travels'', or ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'' is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan ...

'' by

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...

, ''

War and Peace ''War and Peace'' (russian: Война и мир, translit=Voyna i mir; pre-reform Russian: ; ) is a literary work by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy that mixes fictional narrative with chapters on history and philosophy. It was first published ...

'' by

Lev Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

, ''

Mrs. Warren's Profession ''Mrs. Warren's Profession'' is a play written by George Bernard Shaw in 1893, and first performed in London in 1902. The play is about a former prostitute, now a madam (brothel proprietor), who attempts to come to terms with her disapproving ...

'' by

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

, and several similar literary works appear in Kasman's database because these works contain references to mathematics or mathematicians, even though mathematics and mathematicians are not important in their plots. According to this broader approach, the oldest extant work of mathematical fiction is '' The Birds'', a comedy by the Ancient Greek playwright

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states ...

performed in 414 BCE. Kasman's database has a list of more than one thousand items of diverse categories like literature, comic books and films.

Some works of mathematical fiction

The top ten results turned up by a search of the website of

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure a ...

using the keywords "mathematical fiction" contained references to the following works of mathematical fiction. # # # # # #

References

External links

Alex Kasman's database of mathematical fictionPopular Math Fiction Books at ''goodreads''
Science fiction genres Speculative fiction Mathematics and culture Recreational mathematics

A database of mathematical fiction

Some works of mathematical fiction

References

Further reading

External links