On Literature

umberto eco martin mclaughlin

In this collection of essays and addresses delivered over the course of his illustrious career, Umberto Eco seeks "to understand the chemistry of [his] passion" for the word. From musings on Ptolemy and "the force of the false" to reflections on the experimental writing of Borges and Joyce, Eco's luminous intelligence and encyclopedic knowledge are on dazzling display throughout. And when he reveals his own ambitions and superstitions, his authorial anxieties and fears, one feels like a secret sharer in the garden of literature to which he so often alludes.

Remarkably accessible and unfailingly stimulating, this collection exhibits the diversity of interests and the depth of knowledge that have made Eco one of the world's leading writers.

On some functions of literature --
A reading of the Paradiso --
On the style of The communist manifesto --
The mists of the Valoi --
Wilde : parados and aphorism --
A portrait of the artist as bachelor --
Between La Mancha and Babel --
Borges and my anxiety of influence --
On Camporesi : blood, body, life --
On symbolism --
On style --
Les Semaphores sous la Pluie --
The flaws in the form --
Intertextual irony and levels of reading --
The Poetics and us --
The American myth in three anti-American generations --
The power of falsehood --
How I write

Genres nonfictionessaysliterary criticismbooks about booksliteraturewritingphilosophycriticismitalian literaturetheory

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,2002

This edition

Format: 352 pages, Paperback
Published: January 1, 2005 by HarperVia
ISBN: 9780156032391
ASIN: 0156032392
Language: English

About the author

umberto eco

Umberto Eco was an Italian medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular 1980 novel The Name of the Rose, a historical mystery combining semiotics in fiction with biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory, as well as Foucault's Pendulum, his 1988 novel which touches on similar themes.
Eco wrote prolifically throughout his life, with his output including children's books, translations from French and English, in addition to a twice-monthly newspaper column "La Bustina di Minerva" (Minerva's Matchbook) in the magazine L'Espresso beginning in 1985, with his last column (a critical appraisal of the Romantic paintings of Francesco Hayez) appearing 27 January 2016. At the time of his death, he was an Emeritus professor at the University of Bologna, where he taught for much of his life. In the 21st century, he has continued to gain recognition for his 1995 essay "Ur-Fascism", where Eco lists fourteen general properties he believes comprise fascist ideologies.