Mathematics and Literature

Submitted by chronaki on Wed, 07/16/2014 - 16:49
Course Code (in greek): 
ΘΠ0310
Course Type: 
ΘΕ
ECTS Units: 
5
Semester: 
-
Professor: 
Chronaki Anna
Professor: 
Kontaxi Eleni

Course Description

The course aims to present and discuss a common space in-between mathematics and literary texts, as well as, to explore mathematical literature as a way of making relations to multiple stories of mathematical thinking. Connecting literature and specifically children’s literature with mathematics is realized through a series of texts where either mathematical knowledge becomes a source of inspiration for the author, or the text itself serves to unfold a pedagogic approach to mathematical learning, that serves to narrate the invention of mathematical ideas, to present a biography or, even, to popularize mathematical concepts. Often, such literary texts tend to situate mathematics within their historical, social, cultural and political contexts seeking for an affective encounter with readership. The course discusses how such texts narrate human relations with mathematics and, also, how such narratives tend to unfold the construction of certain dominant or marginal identities or subject positions. Finally, the course aims to engage students in a transdisciplinary approach of mathematics and literature that may serve to imagine how mathematical activity has been constructed in narratives but also to support a dialogic or, even, a disruptive reading of hegemonic narratives.

Learning Outcomes

Students, having completed the course, will be able to:

  • reconfigure their relation to mathematics through a transdisciplinary, critical and affective perspective.
  • explore and deconstruct the construction of stable identities such as ‘mathematical talent’, ‘weak thinker’, ‘abstract thinking’, in the context of narratives
  • encounter methods, tools and activities where Mathematical Literature could be enacted pedagogically for mathematical concept learning.
  • explore mathematical knowledge dialogically and disruptively with literary texts

Evaluation

The course evaluation takes place with written exams or small-scale research work with texts.

Teaching Methods

Lectures, seminars, group-work, small-scale research, invited scholars, presentations, digital material, drama techniques, narrative practices

Course material available at: https://eclass.uth.gr/courses/ECE_U_216/