DOCSLIB.ORG

Yscrys 1.Pdf

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Yscrys 1.Pdf Across the Colonial Divide: Friendship in the British Empire, 1875-1940 by You-Sun Crystal Chung A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History and Women’s Studies) in the University of Michigan 2014 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Kali A. K. Israel, Chair Professor Adela Pinch Professor Helmut Puff Associate Professor Damon Salesa, University of Auckland © You-Sun Crystal Chung 2014 To my parents, Hyui Kyung Choi and Sye Kyun Chung, My brother June Won Fred Chung, And the memory of my grandmother Junghwa Kim ii Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank my committee Kali Israel, Adela Pinch, Damon Salesa, and especially Helmut Puff, for his generosity and insight since the inception of this project. Leslie Pincus also offered valuable encouragement when it was most keenly felt. This dissertation would not have been possible without the everyday support provided by Lorna Altstetter, Diana Denney, Aimee Germain, and especially Kathleen King. I have been fortunate throughout the process to be sustained by the friendship of those from home as well as those those I met at Michigan. My thanks to those who have demonstrated for me the strength of old ties: Jinok Baek, Yongran Byun Bang Sunghoon, Jeeyun Cho, Kyungeun Cho, Hae mi Choi, Hyewon Choi, Soonyoung Choi, Woojin Choi, Sue Young Chung, Yoonie Chung, YoonYoung Hwang, Jiah Hyun, Won Sun Hyun, Hailey Jang, Claire Kim, Kim Daeyoung, Max Kepler, Eun Hyung Kim, Hyunjoo Kim, Hye Young Kim, Jiwon Kang, Kim Jeongyeon, Jungeun Kim, Minju Kim, Minseung Kim, Nayeon Kim, Soojeong Kim, Woojae Kim, Bora Lee, Dae Jun Lee, Haeyeon Lee, Philip W. Lee, Seuyeun Lee, Woo Mi Lee, Angela Ng, Minjeong Oh, James L. Park, Jong Min Park, Jungwon Park, Hayoung Rhee, Jinhee Rhew, Shin Jieun, Ji- Hye Shin, JiYoung Son, Pacharee Sudhinaraset, and Song Wook. Michigan has been no less forthcoming in the friendship I have found: Meg Ahern, Mandy Davis, Jacqueline Doremus, Elizabeth Ela, Sherry Funches, Molly iii Hatcher, Ann Hernandez, Susan Hwang, Olivera Jokić, Kumiko Kobayashi, Jaymin Kim, Sang Woo Kim, Suzi Linsley, Jeffrey Lloyd, Diana Mankowski, Elspeth Martini, Nilanjana Majumdar, Mercedes Mejia, Carrick Rogers, Sarah McDermott Thompson, Navaneetha Mokkil-Maruthur, Patrick Parker, Thida Sam, and Jamie Small. I owe special thanks to my writing group friends, who have been invaluable in these final stages: Rebecca Grapevine, Jeremy Ledger, Yan Long, Emily Merchant, and Lenny Ureña Valerio. Hyunchul Park has been an unfailing source of support throughout. Finally, I would like to thank my ever patient parents and brother as well as my extended family. iv Table of Contents Dedication………………………………………………………………………………..ii Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………….......iii Abstract…………..………………………………………………………………………v Introduction……………………………………………………………………………...1 Chapter One The Solicitor and the Detective Novelist: Conan Doyle and the Curious Case of George Edalji……………………………………………………………………………27 Chapter Two “The One Romantic Incident in My Life:” The Mathematician and the Clerk……………………………………………………………………………………108 Chapter Three The Poet and His Critic: Rabindranath Tagore and Edward John Thompson…..201 Epilogue…………………………………………………………………………….….243 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………...251 Abstract This dissertation explores how “colonial friendship” in the form of collaborations and affinities forged across colonial lines of power and culture within the British Empire signified publicly and privately. Examining three cases in which British men aligned themselves with men of South Asian backgrounds in a period spanning from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century brings into focus a kaleidoscope of meanings— ethical, affective, and professional—marshaled under the conceptual umbrella of friendship. Colonial friendships clearly resonated in the public sphere because those involved were designated differently with regard to the nation and Empire. I explore how individuals understood themselves as “friends” in the context of racial and cultural differences as they played out in such realms as public opinion, the academy, and cosmopolitan circuits of cultural exchange. These relationships were informed by exhortatory notions of guardianship as well as egalitarian aspirations and reflected multi- layered asymmetries—most prominently of race, class, and educational background among others. As such, they serve as a springboard for the central question of this dissertation: what meanings were generated by these friendships and how were they used? This question and a consideration of contexts of public, colonial, and national contestations motivate three case studies. Chapter 1 uses Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1907 v public campaign to exonerate the biracial George Edalji as a lens through which to explore the inclusionary and exclusionary impulses of empire-building. Chapter 2 considers the affective dimensions of the mathematical collaboration of Srinivasa Ramanujan and G. H. Hardy to interrogate the disparity of expressions of feeling between the former’s reticence and the latter’s volubility. Chapter 3 examines as a window into the limits of cosmopolitan thought in a period of ascendant nationalism the relations between poet and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore and Edward John Thompson, who started his career as a missionary before becoming a writer on the subject of India. People from various walks of the colonial order invested in elective affinities with those of divergent national, cultural, or racial affiliations, motivated by the perceived advantages of bridging those gaps. On one hand, material exigency often animated the experience of colonial subjection. Aligning oneself with those in more powerful positions might yield such practical advantages such as professional advancement. On the other, for the British, the empire fostered a sense of self invested in enacting liberal universal visions of the world through amical associations such as those examined here. The asymmetries particular to each case, however, resist schematization, as evidenced by the multiple ways in which friendship could be used to both justify and challenge the British imperial project. I argue that friendship served as a representative mode of colonial relationality in the British Empire. Both an alternative and complement to liberal paternalism, friendship as practiced in the domain of Empire highlighted the multivalence of the imperial project. vi Introduction In 1936, at the Harvard Tercentenary Conference of Arts and Sciences, G. H. Hardy, prominent mathematician and professor at Cambridge, delivered two lectures on Srinivasa Ramanujan. Sixteen years had passed since the mathematical genius, formerly a low-level clerk in Madras, India, fell ill and met his untimely death. But he remained omnipresent in Hardy’s consciousness. As a participant in the symposium on mathematics and the physical sciences, Hardy contributed a paper on a topic of his choice. He chose Ramanujan as his subject— the man himself as much his work as a mathematician. For Hardy, the two were intertwined. In fact, Hardy’s first lecture bears the title of “The Indian mathematician Ramanujan,” referring solely to the man.1 The conference was intended as “a major international scholarly event.” 2 In principle, it promoted the pursuit of common truths in the face of interwar political conflict. It was one of many efforts through which those who looked toward universalist visions of a world hoped to combat the divisions that had recently exacted a heavy price. Hardy’s lecture, however, highlighted the difficulties of realizing such a vision. He told the story of “a poor and solitary Hindu pitting his brains against 1 By way of comparison, his second lecture is entitled “Ramanujan and the theory of prime numbers,” in which case Hardy more directly addresses the substance of Ramanujan’s work. 2 Clark A. Elliott, “The Tercentenary of Harvard University in 1936: The Scientific Dimension,” Osiris, 2nd Series, Vol. 14, Commemorative Practices in Science: Historical Perspectives on the Politics of Collective Memory (1999), 159. 1 the accumulated wisdom of Europe.”3 On one hand, Hardy signaled Ramanujan’s contribution to the conference’s global academic project by choosing Ramanujan as the subject of his lecture. On the other, he characterized the process of Ramanujan’s work in combative—rather than cooperative—terms. Hardy’s construction of Ramanujan’s achievement as a struggle against Europe gestured to the amplified challenges that colonial disparities posed for those disadvantaged by them—such as the former clerk from Madras—to make themselves understood across divisions of race, power, and culture. This was true even for Ramanujan, whom the European math world eventually acknowledged as a genius. Indeed, in 1918, five years into his collaboration with Hardy, Ramanujan achieved Royal Society membership, foreshadowing a legacy that extended decades after death as his work continued to fuel mathematical research into the present. And while the ultimate recognition afforded by this ongoing relevance came much later, Hardy’s designation of Ramanujan as a “genius” was contemporaneous. Nevertheless, Ramanujan encountered substantial hurdles—in the ostensibly objective discipline of mathematics, no less—making the truth of his mathematical aptitude known across the divide that separated colonizer from colonized. Hardy and his cosmopolitan peers at the conference assumed the truth they sought to be
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Ramanujan As a Patient
    Proc. Indian Acad. Sci. (Math. Sci.), Voi. 93, Nos 2 & 3, December 1984, pp. 79-100 Printed in India. Ramanujan as a patient R A RANKIN Department of Mathematics, University of Glasgow, Glasgow GI2 8QW, Scotland 1. Introduction In this article I attempt to give as full a picture as possible of Srinivasa Ramanujan's medical history during his time in England. The account is based largely on unpublished letters and documents housed in various libraries, and on information extracted from the records of public bodies. In my earlier paper [12] I was concerned mainly with his notebooks and manuscripts, although I did give a brief description of the nursing homes in which he was a patient, based on information available to me at the time. What might be called Ramanujan's domestic history is well documented [1, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14], at any rate as regards incident, if not exact date, so that, in the interests of brevity, I recall only those events that have a direct bearing on my subject. I also take the opportunity (in w to amplify and extend some of the material included in [12], in the light of information more recently received, and to make a number of general comments. The source to which most frequent reference is made is the collection of unpublished papers and documents written by, or concerning, Ramanujan (1887-1920), which were passed on by G H Hardy (1877-1947) and J E Littlewood (1885-1977) to G N Watson (1886-1965) and are now housed in the Wren Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, where at one time all four were Fellows.
    [Show full text]
  • Ramanujan: Matemático Genial Desde La Pobreza Extrema
    Rev.R.Acad.Cienc.Exact.Fís.Nat. (Esp) Vol. 107, Nº. 1-2, pp 43-54, 2014 XVI Programa de Promoción de la Cultura Científica y Tecnológica RAMANUJAN: MATEMÁTICO GENIAL DESDE LA POBREZA EXTREMA. MANUEL LÓPEZ PELLICER Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Valverde, 22. 28004 Madrid. 1. ENTORNO FAMILIAR. Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan nació en Erode, cer- ca de Madrás, el 22 de diciembre de 1887. La India luchaba por su independencia desde 1857, mediante revueltas contra los ingleses. El héroe pacifista de la independencia fue Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi1, héroe pacifista de la independencia de la India, cono- cido como Mahatma Gandhi, que vivió entre 1869 y 1948. Ramanujan no conoció la independencia de la India, que se produjo el 15 de agosto de 1947. Su familia era muy pobre, aunque pertenecía a la casta Brahmin, que era una casta alta. Su padre era contable en un comercio de telas de Kumbakonam y su madre, apreciada por su buen criterio derivado de su gran sentido común, era hija de un modesto oficial del juzgado de Erodo. Su abuelo sufrió la lepra. Figura 1. Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan. 1887-1920. 1 Desde 1918 perteneció al movimiento nacionalista hindú, utilizó la huelga de hambre como método de lucha social. Influido por León Tolstoi rechazó la lucha armada, predicando la no violencia para vencer al dominio británico, defendiendo la fidelidad a los dictados de la conciencia y el retorno a las tradiciones hinduistas. Su encarcelamiento en varias ocasiones le convirtió en un héroe nacional. En 1944 Gandi y su esposa Kasturba sufrieron arresto domiciliario en el Palacio del Aga Khan, donde ella murió en 1944, mientras que Gandhi realizaba veintiún días de ayuno.
    [Show full text]
  • The Case of George Ernest Thompson Edalji
    THE CASE OF GEORGE ERNEST THOMPSON EDALJI In 1903, Staffordshire Police arrested George Edalji of Great Wyrley (near Birmingham) on charges of wounding a pony and writing a threatening letter under a pseudonym (which strangely accused Edalji himself of the mutilations). Edalji, the eldest of three children, was at the time a twenty-seven-year old solicitor still living with his parents, and commuting by train to Birmingham to practice law. Although his father Shapurji Edalji (the vicar of Great Wyrley), who had converted to Church of England from Parsi, the family had suffered a great deal of abuse (including racial abuse) for many years from colleagues and local people perhaps because of Shapurji’s Indian origin and his marriage to an Englishwoman. Over a period of six months, 16 animals were found brutally slashed to death and mutilated with shallow slits along their stomach. Despite him having no possible involvement (Davenport-Hines 2008) George Edalji was convicted of the 8th animal outrage, when a pit-pony was discovered in a field not far from the Edalji home with a savage wound across its belly. The police suspected that he was also responsible for the other slayings. Although his father testified that George was fast asleep at the time of the crime, his testimony was disregarded. Instead, dubious circumstantial evidence such as razor blades found in the vicarage and spots of blood on his coat were counted as evidence that his had committed the crime. The fact that the animal outrages continued after George Edalji’s imprisonment was disregarded and it was claimed that George was just a member of a gang.
    [Show full text]
  • Arthur & George
    The Game Is On—for Real. Arthur & George With Martin Clunes as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Adapted from Julian Barnes’s acclaimed novel Sundays, September 6 - 20, 2015 at the special time of 8pm ET on MASTERPIECE on PBS Martin Clunes (Doc Martin) stars as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, in a real-life case that inspired the great author to put down his pen and turn detective. Tracing a string of notorious animal mutilations alleged to involve an attorney named George Edalji, Arthur & George airs in three gripping episodes on MASTERPIECE, Sundays, September 6-20, 2015 at the special time of 8pm ET on PBS (check local listings). Arthur & George is adapted from Julian Barnes’s acclaimed novel of the same name, which was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize, the most prestigious literary award in the English-speaking world. Co-starring are Arsher Ali (The Missing) as George Edalji, a mixed-race solicitor living in the English Midlands; Art Malik (Upstairs Downstairs) as his Indian father, an Anglican minister; and Emma Fielding (Cranford) as his Scottish mother. Also appearing are Charles Edwards (Downton Abbey) as Alfred Wood, Sir Arthur’s private secretary; and Hattie Morahan (Sense and Sensibility) as Jean Leckie, the woman that Doyle befriended while his wife was gravely ill. The three-part drama won plaudits from the press during its recent UK broadcast, with The Sunday Telegraph (London) hailing it as “thoroughly enjoyable … Clunes proves exceptionally winning as the widowed writer and sometime crusader for justice, Arthur Conan Doyle, who finds a new zest for life when he comes across the curious case of George Edalji.” The Edalji case saw an improbable defendant, mild-mannered lawyer George Edalji, convicted for mutilating a pony and, by implication, a host of other farm animals in a slashing spree known as the Great Wyrley Outrages.
    [Show full text]
  • Who, Where and When: the History & Constitution of the University of Glasgow
    Who, Where and When: The History & Constitution of the University of Glasgow Compiled by Michael Moss, Moira Rankin and Lesley Richmond © University of Glasgow, Michael Moss, Moira Rankin and Lesley Richmond, 2001 Published by University of Glasgow, G12 8QQ Typeset by Media Services, University of Glasgow Printed by 21 Colour, Queenslie Industrial Estate, Glasgow, G33 4DB CIP Data for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 0 85261 734 8 All rights reserved. Contents Introduction 7 A Brief History 9 The University of Glasgow 9 Predecessor Institutions 12 Anderson’s College of Medicine 12 Glasgow Dental Hospital and School 13 Glasgow Veterinary College 13 Queen Margaret College 14 Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama 15 St Andrew’s College of Education 16 St Mungo’s College of Medicine 16 Trinity College 17 The Constitution 19 The Papal Bull 19 The Coat of Arms 22 Management 25 Chancellor 25 Rector 26 Principal and Vice-Chancellor 29 Vice-Principals 31 Dean of Faculties 32 University Court 34 Senatus Academicus 35 Management Group 37 General Council 38 Students’ Representative Council 40 Faculties 43 Arts 43 Biomedical and Life Sciences 44 Computing Science, Mathematics and Statistics 45 Divinity 45 Education 46 Engineering 47 Law and Financial Studies 48 Medicine 49 Physical Sciences 51 Science (1893-2000) 51 Social Sciences 52 Veterinary Medicine 53 History and Constitution Administration 55 Archive Services 55 Bedellus 57 Chaplaincies 58 Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery 60 Library 66 Registry 69 Affiliated Institutions
    [Show full text]
  • Several New Product Identities in Relation to Two-Variable Rogers–Ramanujan Type Sums and Mock Theta Functions
    SEVERAL NEW PRODUCT IDENTITIES IN RELATION TO TWO-VARIABLE ROGERS–RAMANUJAN TYPE SUMS AND MOCK THETA FUNCTIONS ALEXANDRU PASCADI Abstract. Product identities in two variables x; q expand infinite products as infinite sums, which are linear combinations of theta functions; famous examples include Jacobi’s triple product identity, Watson’s quintuple identity, and Hirschhorn’s septuple identity. We view these series expansions as representations in canonical bases of certain vector spaces of quasiperiodic meromorphic functions (related to sections of line and vector bundles), and find new identities for two nonuple products, an undecuple product, and several two-variable Rogers–Ramanujan type sums. Our main theorem explains a correspondence between the septuple product identity and the two original Rogers– Ramanujan identities, involving two-variable analogues of fifth-order mock theta functions. We also prove a similar correspondence between an octuple product identity of Ewell and two simpler variations of the Rogers–Ramanujan identities, which is related to third-order mock theta functions, and conjecture other occurrences of this phenomenon. As applications, we specialize our results to obtain identities for quotients of generalized Dedekind eta functions and mock theta functions. 1. Introduction 2πiτ 2πiz Q1 n Fix τ 2 C with Im τ > 0, and let z 2 C. Denote q := e , x := e , (x; q) := n=0 (1 − q x), and hx; qi := (x; q)(q=x; q) (the standard notations have a subscript of 1, which we drop for brevity; this will be helpful in identities like (1.4)). Then Jacobi’s triple product identity [13, p. 10] reads X n n n (q; q) hx; qi = (−1) q(2)x : (1.1) n2Z As functions of z, both sides of (1.1) converge absolutely and locally uniformly to entire 1-periodic functions, and satisfy the τ-quasiperiodicity F (z) = −xF (z + τ); in geometric language, F is a section of a certain holomorphic line bundle over the complex torus C=(Z + Zτ).
    [Show full text]
  • Arthur & George Por Julian Barnes – Na Pista De Um Crime Sem Castigo
    UNIVERSIDADE DE TRÁS-OS-MONTES E ALTO DOURO Arthur & George por Julian Barnes – na Pista de um Crime sem Castigo DISSERTAÇÃO DE MESTRADO EM CULTURA E LITERATURA INGLESAS ANABELA CRISTINA ANTUNES PEREIRA Vila Real, 2008 1 Dissertação elaborada no âmbito do Mestrado em Cultura e Literatura Inglesas e apresentada à Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro. Trabalho orientado pela Professora Doutora Laura Fernanda Bulger. 2 Ao meu avô, José da Costa. 3 ÍNDICE Agradecimentos 5 Resumo 6 Abstract 7 Introdução 8 1. Os caminhos tortuosos do Realismo Inglês 10 1.1 - A problemática em torno do Realismo 10 1.2- Intimismo e auto-reflexão 13 1.3 - O romance não-realista de Julian Barnes 16 2. Arthur & George e a ficção da Pós-Modernidade 19 2.1 - A questão da pós-modernidade 19 2.2 - Ambiguidades narrativas 24 2.3 - A reconstituição paródica do passado 35 3. “The Englishness” 38 3.1- England, England - Uma visão paródica de “Englishness” 38 3.2- Arthur and George, “the unoficial Englishmen” 46 4. Perspectivas Dialógicas 52 4.1- A narração omnisciente em Arthur and George 52 4.2- Arthur 58 4.3- George 66 4.4- Arthur and George 75 5. Subversão da lógica detectivesca 83 5.1- Romance Policial 83 5.2- Veredicto 93 5.3- A verdade póstuma do crime 98 Conclusão 104 Referências bibliográficas 107 4 AGRADECIMENTOS Os meus sinceros agradecimentos à Professora Doutora Laura Bulger pelos seus ensinamentos e pela sua orientação atenta durante todos estes meses. A todos os meus Professores de Mestrado, pelo seu profissionalismo e disponibilidade.
    [Show full text]
  • Julian Barnes, Arthur & George
    ACTA LITTERARIA COMPARATIVA The Anonymous Letter in the Construction of Racial Prejudice (Julian Barnes, Arthur & George) Anoniminio laiško vaidmuo konstruojant rasizmą Juliano Barneso romane Arthuras & George‘as Oksana WERETIUK University of Rzeszow Institute of English Studies Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies Al. mjr. W. Kopisto 2B 35-315 Rzeszów, Poland [email protected] Summary The article is an attempt to provide a postcolonial interpretation of racism in Arthur & George, a historical novel by Julian Barnes. The main character, George Edalji, the son of an English pastor of Indian descent and a Scottish mother identi- fies himself as “full English.” His birth, citizenship, education, religion, profes- sion confirm his British status. More and more often, the intelligent, slow, too much introverted “hybrid” is exposed to acts fueled by the racial intolerance of the local community members, which occur behind the rectory fence of the vicar- age. All the time the Edalji family suffers from the attacks of a poisonous racist’s anonymous letters. In Arthur & George, the author of Sherlock Holmes runs a private investigation in defense of George. He carefully reads all the letters and becomes certain of a growing aversion to the Edaljis and especially to the intelli- gent George, a solicitor. The novel shows race-based aversion to the dark-skinned neighbor, whose otherness was sufficient evidence of his guilt, not only for the local community, but also for most of British society, including public institutions such as the police, courts, and even the government. With the help of the anony- mous letters, introduced into the plot, Barnes does not present racism as an act of overt discrimination or aggression, as Victorian-era British society is apparently free from racial prejudice.
    [Show full text]
  • The Mathematical Gazette Index for 1894 to 1908
    The Mathematical Gazette Index for 1894 to 1908 AUTHOR TITLE PAGE Issue Category C.W.Adams Stability of cube floating in liquid p. 388 Dec 1908 MNote 285 V.Ramaswami Aiyar Extension of Euclid I.47 to n-sided regular polygons p. 109 June 1897 MNote 41 V.Ramaswami Aiyar On a fundamental theorem in inversion p. 88 Oct 1904 MNote 153 V.Ramaswami Aiyar On a fundamental theorem in inversion p. 275 Jan 1906 MNote 183 V.Ramaswami Aiyar Note on a point in the demonstration of the binomial theorem p. 276 Jan 1906 MNote 185 V.Ramaswami Aiyar Note on the power inequality p. 321 May 1906 MNote 192 V.Ramaswami Aiyar On the exponential inequalities and the exponential function p. 8 Jan 1907 Article V.Ramaswami Aiyar The A, B, C of the higher analysis p. 79 May 1907 Article V.Ramaswami Aiyar On Stolz and Gmeiner’s proof of the sine and cosine series p. 282 June 1908 MNote 259 V.Ramaswami Aiyar A geometrical proof of Feuerbach’s theorem p. 310 July 1908 MNote 264 A.O.Allen On the adjustment of Kater’s pendulum p. 307 May 1906 Article A.O.Allen Notes on the theory of the reversible pendulum p. 394 Dec 1906 Article Anonymous Proof of a well-known theorem in geometry p. 64 Oct 1896 MNote 30 Anonymous Notes connected with the analytical geometry of the straight line p. 158 Feb 1898 MNote 49 Anonymous Method of reducing central conics p. 225 Dec 1902 MNote 110B (note) Anonymous On a fundamental theorem in inversion p.
    [Show full text]
  • Additive Combinatorics and Its Applications in Theoretical Computer Science
    THEORY OF COMPUTING LIBRARY GRADUATE SURVEYS 887 (2016), pp. 1–53 www.theoryofcomputing.org Additive Combinatorics and its Applications in Theoretical Computer Science Shachar Lovett∗ Received October 1, 2013; Published August 21, 2016 Abstract: Additive combinatorics (or perhaps more accurately, arithmetic combinatorics) is a branch of mathematics which lies at the intersection of combinatorics, number theory, Fourier analysis and ergodic theory. It studies approximate notions of various algebraic structures, such as vector spaces or fields. In recent years, several connections between additive combinatorics and theoretical computer science have been discovered. Techniques and results in additive combinatorics were applied to problems in coding theory, property testing, hardness of approximation, computational complexity, communication complexity, randomness extraction and pseudo-randomness. The goal of this survey is to provide an introduction to additive combinatorics for students and researchers in theoretical computer science, to illustrate some of the exciting connections to classical problems in computer science, and to describe the many open problems that remain. 1 Introduction Additive combinatorics (or perhaps more accurately, arithmetic combinatorics) is a branch of mathematics which lies at the intersection of combinatorics, number theory, Fourier analysis and ergodic theory. It ∗Supported by NSF CAREER award 1350481. ACM Classification: F.2.2, G.2.3 AMS Classification: 68Q17, 68Q25 Key words and phrases: additive combinatorics, theoretical computer science © 2016 Shachar Lovett cb Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY) DOI: 10.4086/toc.gs.2016.887 SHACHAR LOVETT studies approximate notions of algebraic structures. As an illustrative example, consider the following problem. Let G be an Abelian group, and let A be a subset of G.
    [Show full text]
  • The Life and Work of Ra Rankin
    THE LIFE AND WORK OF R. A. RANKIN (1915–2001) BRUCE C. BERNDT1, WINFRIED KOHNEN, AND KEN ONO2 Robert Alexander Rankin, an eminent Scottish number theorist and, for several decades, one of the world’s foremost experts in modular forms, died on January 27, 2001 in Glasgow at the age of 85. He was one of the founding editors of The Ramanujan Journal. For this and the next issue of the The Ramanujan Journal, several well-known mathematicians have prepared articles in Rankin’s memory. In this opening paper, we provide a short biography of Rankin and discuss some of his major contributions to mathematics. At the conclusion of this article, we provide a complete bibliography of all of Rankin’s writings divided into five categories: 1) Research and Expository Papers; 2) Books; 3) Books Edited; 4) Obituaries; 5) Other Writings. 1. His Life Robert Rankin was born on October 27, 1915 at Garlieston, Wigtownshire, Scotland. His father, Reverend Oliver Shaw Rankin, was a parish minister in Sorbie, Wigtown- shire between 1912 and 1937. His mother was Olivia Teresa Shaw Rankin born in 1884 in W¨urzburg,Germany. Oliver and Olivia were first cousins, their mothers be- ing sisters. Robert was named after his paternal grandfather, who was a pastor in Lamington, Lanarkshire, when his grandson was born. He attended Garlieston School and already at a young age developed an affinity for the Gaelic culture and language. Late in his teenage years, he spent four to six weeks working in a general store on the island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides in order to learn spoken Gaelic.
    [Show full text]
  • Reading Group Guide Spotlight
    Spotlight on: Reading Group Guide Arthur & George Author: Julian Barnes Born January 9, 946, in Leicester, England; son of Name: Julian Barnes Albert Leonard (a French teacher) and Kaye (a French Born: January 9, 946 teacher) Barnes; married Pat Kavanagh (a literary Education: Magdalen agent), 979. Education: Magdalen College, Oxford, College, Oxford, B.A. B.A. (with honors), 968. Addresses: Agent: Peters, (with honors) Fraser, and Dunlop Ltd., Drury House, 34-43 Russell St., Address: Peters, Fraser, and London WC2B 5HA, England. Dunlop Ltd., Drury House, 34-43 Russell St., London WC2B 5HA, England. Career: Freelance writer, 972—. Lexicographer for Oxford English Dictionary Supplement, Oxford, England, 969-72; New Statesman, London, England, assistant literary editor, 977-78, television critic, 977-8; Sunday Times, London, deputy literary editor, 979-8; Observer, London, television critic, 982-86; London correspondent for New Yorker magazine, 990-94. Awards: Somerset Maugham Prize, 980, for Metroland; Booker Prize nomination, 984, Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and Prix Medicis, all for Flaubert’s Parrot; American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters award, 986, for work of distinction; Prix Gutembourg, 987; Premio Grinzane Carour, 988; Prix Femina for Talking It Over, 992; Shakespeare Prize (Hamburg), 993; Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; shortlisted for Booker Prize, 998, for England, England. Writings: Novels Metroland, St. Martin’s Press (New York, NY), 980. Before She Met Me, Jonathan Cape (London, England), 982, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 986. Flaubert’s Parrot, Jonathan Cape (London, England), 984, Knopf (New York, NY), 985. Staring at the Sun, Jonathan Cape (London, England), 986, Knopf (New York, NY), 987.
    [Show full text]