The Cypher and the Abyss: Outline Against Infinity
Date of Award
Spring 2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
English Language and Literature
First Advisor
Fry, Paul
Abstract
“The Cypher and The Abyss” is a cultural history of zeroes and ones from the late seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries, considering the many shifting forms and shapes that these two “quantities” adopted in the period between the invention of binary and Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine (1832). With chapters on abysses, cyphers, atoms, and heroes, this dissertation studies concurrent developments in physics and mathematics (particularly geometry, algebra, and calculus) alongside literary and artistic representations of nothingness and the singular unit, from vacuums, voids, and zephyrs to atoms, blots, and grains of sand to heroes and protagonists. “The Cypher and The Abyss” argues that Romanticism was a unique locus where the concept of zero and one took on new valences—paving the way for the shifting role zeroes and ones have adopted (and will continue to adopt) in the modern era.
Recommended Citation
Weston, Sarah T., "The Cypher and the Abyss: Outline Against Infinity" (2023). Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations. 1008.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/gsas_dissertations/1008
