Umberto Eco Philosophy, Semiotics and the Work of Fiction

by Caesar, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780745608495
• ISBN10: 0745608493
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-08-03
• Publisher: Polity

Summary

Umberto Eco may have become world-famous with his best-selling novel The Name of the Rose, but his writings have been influential in many fields for several decades. This book provides a comprehensive introduction to his work and thought.

Author Biography

Michael Caesar is Professor of Italian and Head of Italian Studies at the University of Birmingham.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
Note on References	x
Introduction	1	(5)
Form, Interpretation and the Open Work	6	(22)
On form and interpretation: from Croce to Pareyson	6	(4)
Art and rationality	10	(5)
The appearance of Opera aperta	15	(3)
The poetics of the open work	18	(5)
Beyond `openness'	23	(5)
A Critical View of Culture: Mass Communications, Politics and the Avant-garde	28	(26)
The role of the avant-garde	29	(8)
Mass communications and theories of mass culture	37	(6)
Television and semiotic guerrilla war	43	(4)
Openness and structure	47	(7)
Introducing the Study of Signs	54	(22)
Signals and sense	55	(9)
Ambiguity, self-reflexivity and the aesthetic message	64	(3)
The critique of iconism	67	(2)
Some provisional conclusions on the aesthetic message	69	(7)
A Theory of Semiotics	76	(24)
From La struttura assente to A Theory of Semiotics	76	(5)
Communication, code and signification	81	(2)
Sign and sign-function	83	(7)
Sign production, iconism and the aesthetic message (again)	90	(10)
Semiotics Bounded and Unbound	100	(20)
The boundaries of semiotics	102	(9)
The dynamics of semiosis	111	(9)
Theory and Fiction	120	(25)
Readers and worlds	120	(14)
Texts	134	(11)
Secrets, Paranoia and Critical Reading	145	(17)
Kant, the Platypus and the Horizon	162	(9)
Notes	171	(13)
Select Bibliography	184	(9)
Index	193