Yang Wang

Can Mathematics Solve Mysteries in Literature?

There have been no shortages of controversies in literature, from old questions such as whether Cao Xueqin wrote all 120 chapters of "Dreams of Red Chamber", widely known as the greatest work of Chinese literature, to new questions such as whether Obama actually wrote his autobiography "Dreams From My Father".

For mathematicians, it is interesting to ask whether mathematics can be used to settle these controversies. In this talk, I will give an overview on how mathematics can be applied to analyze the "style" of an author and the related field of study called "stylometry". I will show that mathematics can be used to almost definitively settle many such controversies.

This is a Public Lecture. Please register for free via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/professor-yang-wang-thursday-27th-september-2018-tickets-49643609372