A course Literature and mathematics

TL;DR

This paper describes a long-term university teaching experiment from 2008 to 2021 that aimed to integrate discourse on mathematics and literature, highlighting their interconnections and shared moments of insight.

Contribution

It presents a novel cross-disciplinary teaching approach combining mathematics and literature to explore their interconnected reasoning and shared flashes of thought.

Findings

Developed a dual discourse on mathematics and literature.

Identified moments of insight bridging the two disciplines.

Demonstrated the feasibility of cross-disciplinary university courses.

Abstract

This article gives an account of a teaching experience carried out from 2008 to 2021 at the university of Franche-Comt{\'e} as an answer to the ministerial command of proposing cross-disciplinary courses in the curricula. The goal of the experience was to develop simultaneously a discourse on mathematics and a discourse on literature, two independent discourses, but each filled with the gap between one domain and the other and mindful of the flashes of thought that are lightening from one to the other, witnesses of unity in their reasoning. -- Cet article rend compte d'une exp{\'e}rience d'enseignement men{\'e}e de 2008 {\`a} 2012 {\`a} l'universit{\'e} de Franche-Comt{\'e} en r{\'e}ponse {\`a} l'injonction minist{\'e}rielle de proposer des unit{\'e}s transversales dans les maquettes de dipl{\^o}me. Le but de cette exp{\'e}rience a {\'e}t{\'e} de d{\'e}velopper {\`a} la fois un discours sur les math{\'e}matiques et un discours sur la litt{\'e}rature, deux discours ind{\'e}pendants, mais chacun rempli de l'{\'e}cart entre l'un des domaines et l'autre, et attentif aux {\'e}clairs de la pens{\'e}e qui jaillissent de l'un vers l'autre, t{\'e}moignages d'unit{\'e} dans la d{\'e}marche intellectuelle.