Simon McBurney’s Ambitious Pursuit of the Pure Maths Play

Abstract

When Simon McBurney set out to create a play about the fabled relationship between Cambridge mathematician G. H. Hardy and the self-taught Indian genius Srinivasa Ramanujan, he was immediately confronted by the question of how to engage the mathematics authentically. Undaunted by his own uneasiness with the subject, McBurney incorporated a host of experts into the rehearsal process, calling on mathematical educators, expositors, and Fields medalists to come work with the company. While on the surface maths and drama make an incongruous pair, the result was a vibrant collaboration. The final product — the award-winning play A Disappearing Number — shines an interesting light on the surprising similarity between the creative process in mathematics and the creative process in theatre, especially as manifested by the company at Complicite.     

A “Southern interference in the North's affairs”: the prospect of Fianna Fáil as an all-Ireland party, 1926–2011

This article demonstrates that Fianna Fáil's efforts in 2007 and thereafter to reconfigure as an all-Ireland party represented a volte-face in policy. From an historical perspective, since Fianna Fáil's establishment in 1926, consecutive leaders from Éamon de Valera to Albert Reynolds in the 1990s consistently refused to remodel the party on an all-Ireland basis. Rather than participating in Northern Ireland mainstream politics, Fianna Fáil was fixated with firstly securing, and then maintaining, a republican government in the south of Ireland. Accordingly, in the words of Lemass speaking in 1964, any “Southern interference in the North's affairs” was habitually ruled out by the Fianna Fáil leadership.     

The Indian nation and selective amnesia: representing conflicts and violence in Indian history textbooks

‘Unity is always obtained by means of brutality’ wrote Ernest Renan. Following this idea, this article investigates how social conflicts and violence are included or muted in national history. This is done by comparing the successive series of history textbooks used in India in the postindependence period. The historical narratives contained in the textbooks were influenced by different conceptions of the Indian nation, and these variations allow us to observe and better understand what is remembered or forgotten in the national narrative. We will see that conflicts and violence are referred to when they involve the nation against its ‘other’ but depictions of conflicts within the nation as it is imagined are avoided. Thus, certain violent episodes of the past find a place in the national historical narrative, yet violence in itself is never described.     

论甘地与印度的分裂

甘地为印度的民族独立作出了独特的贡献,但他和穆斯林联盟及国大党大多数主要领导人一样,对于印度的分裂也应该负有一定程度的责任,因为他对于加速印度分裂的因素--真纳由民族主义者转变为种族主义者、穆盟势力的增强成长起了很大作用,在关键时刻没有利用自己在印度国民中的威望和影响尽可能避免分裂局面的出现.     

不合作的悲剧：全印联邦方案流产探析

英国政府非常重视印度权力的移交问题。将政权移交给一个统一的印度政府可能在最大限度内维护英国在印度的政治利益、经济利益和战略利益。1918年《蒙塔古—蔡姆斯福德报告》提出由英属印度和印度土邦组成印度联邦的设想,此后,英国政府为实现这一设想作了很多努力,《西蒙委员会报告》、圆桌会议、《1935年印度政府法》、"内阁使团方案"一再重申并不断完善联邦方案。但是,由于国大党、穆斯林联盟等印度党派和教派不能互相妥协与合作,全印联邦方案最终流产,英国政府不得不实行印巴分治。     

Partitioned identities? Everyday national distinctions in Northern Ireland and the Irish state

How does political structure affect ethno‐national distinction? Partitioned societies are a good test case where we can see the effects of changed socio‐political circumstances on historically inherited distinction. This article takes nominally identical distinctions of nationality and religion with common historical roots and shows how they are differentially understood in two polities partitioned in 1920: Northern Ireland, a devolved region of the United Kingdom, and the Irish state. Using a data base of interviews with over 220 respondents, of which 75 in Northern Ireland, conducted between 2003 and 2006, it shows how complex, potentially totalising and exclusive ‘ethnic’ and ‘ethno‐national’ divisions are built up from simpler and more permeable distinctions. Respondents interrelate the same elements into a loosely‐knit symbolic structure – different in each jurisdiction – which frames expectations and discourse, and which is associated with different logics of national discourse, one focussing on personal orientation, the other on group belonging. The resultant ‘ethno‐national’ distinctions function differently North and South.     

The historical significance of President Kennedy's visit to Ireland in June 1963

President John F. Kennedy's visit to Ireland in June 1963 was the first by a serving American President. Using materials from archives in London, Dublin, and Boston, this article re-assesses the motives behind Kennedy's decision to visit Ireland and concludes that it was largely a personal journey. However, the trip was not without wider historical and political significance and was surrounded by controversy. The visit was unpopular in the United States, proved a security nightmare, and provoked much discussion amongst the political leadership in Belfast, Dublin and London over Kennedy's attitude to partition. The visit marked a major development in the history of Irish-American relations as it eased tensions over Ireland's neutrality, marked a shift towards White House activism in Irish affairs, boosted Irish tourism, and fostered increased trading and cultural links between the two countries.