The Refraction of Geometry: Tristram Shandy and the Poetics of War 1700/1800

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Refraction of Geometry

T2 - Tristram Shandy and the Poetics of War 1700/1800

AU - Engberg-Pedersen, Anders

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - This essay examines the role of geometry in military theory around 1700 and its critical reception in Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy. Juxtaposing literature, maps, and war games, the essay outlines a poetics of war in the eighteenth century and traces the decline of the geometrical order that governs it. A forged continuation of Sterne's novel written in the immediate aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars reveals the development of a new poetics and the installment of a military order based on topography and chance.

AB - This essay examines the role of geometry in military theory around 1700 and its critical reception in Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy. Juxtaposing literature, maps, and war games, the essay outlines a poetics of war in the eighteenth century and traces the decline of the geometrical order that governs it. A forged continuation of Sterne's novel written in the immediate aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars reveals the development of a new poetics and the installment of a military order based on topography and chance.

U2 - 10.1525/rep.2013.123.1.23

DO - 10.1525/rep.2013.123.1.23

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0734-6018

VL - 123 Summer 2013

SP - 23

EP - 52

JO - Representations

JF - Representations

ER -