What is Umberto Eco?

Western Philosophy 20th/21st century philosophy
Umberto Eco in May 2005
Name:	Umberto Eco
Birth:	January 5, 1932 Alessandria, Italy
School/tradition:	Semiotics
Main interests:	Reader-response criticism
Notable ideas:	the "open work" ("opera aperta")
Influences:	Joyce, Borges, Peirce, Kant

Umberto Eco (born January 5, 1932) is an Italian medievalist, semiotician, philosopher and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose (Il nome della rosa) and his many essays.

Biography

Eco was born in the city of Alessandria in the region of Piedmont. His father, Giulio, was an accountant before the government called upon him to serve in three wars. During World War II, Umberto and his mother, Giovanna, moved to a small village in the Piedmontese mountainside. Eco received a Salesian education, and he has made references to the order and its founder in his works and interviews.^[1]

His family name is supposedly an acronym of ex caelis oblatus (Latin: a gift from the heavens), which was given to his grandfather (a foundling) by a city official.^[2]

His father was the son of a family with thirteen children, and urged him to become a lawyer, but he entered the University of Turin in order to take up medieval philosophy and literature, writing his thesis on Thomas Aquinas and earning his BA in philosophy in 1954. During this time, Eco left the Roman Catholic Church after a crisis of faith.^[3]

After this, Eco worked as a cultural editor for the state broadcasting station Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI) and also lectured at the University of Turin (1956–64). A group of avant-garde artists—painters, musicians, writers—whom he had befriended at RAI became an important and influential component in Eco's future writing career. This was especially true after the publication of his first book in 1956, Il problema estetico di San Tommaso, which was an extension of his doctoral thesis. This also marked the beginning of his lecturing career at his alma mater.

In September 1962, he married Renate Ramge, a German art teacher.

Works

In 1959, he published his second book, Sviluppo dell'estetica medievale, which established Eco as a formidable thinker in medievalism and proved his literary worth to his father. After serving for 18 months in the Italian Army, he left RAI to become, in 1959, non-fiction senior editor of Casa Editrice Bompiani of Milan, a position he would hold until 1975.

Eco's work on medieval aesthetics stressed the distinction between theory and practice. About the Middle Ages, he wrote, there was "a geometrically rational schema of what beauty ought to be, and on the other [hand] the unmediated life of art with its dialectic of forms and intentions" — the two cut off from one another as if by a pane of glass. Eco's work in literary theory has changed focus over time. Initially, he was one of the pioneers of "Reader Response".

During these years, Eco began seriously developing his ideas on the "open" text and on semiotics, penning many essays on these subjects, and in 1962 he published Opera aperta ("Open Work").

In Opera aperta, Eco argued that literary texts are fields of meaning, rather than strings of meaning, that they are understood as open, internally dynamic and psychologically engaged fields. Those works of literature that limit potential understanding to a single, unequivocal line are the least rewarding, while those that are most open, most active between mind and society and line, are the most lively and best — although valuation terminology is not his business. Eco emphasizes the fact that words do not have meanings that are simply lexical, but rather operate in the context of utterance. So much had been said by I. A. Richards and others, but Eco draws out the implications for literature from this idea. He also extended the axis of meaning from the continually deferred meanings of words in an utterance to a play between expectation and fulfillment of meaning. Eco comes to these positions through study of language and from semiotics, rather than from psychology or historical analysis (as did theorists such as Wolfgang Iser, on the one hand, and Hans-Robert Jauss, on the other). He has also influenced popular culture studies though he did not develop a full-scale theory in this field.

Action in Anthropology

Founded by Umberto Eco, et al in 1971, Versus: Quaderni di studi semiotici (VS in Italian academic jargon) is an influential semiotic journal in Italy that has been an important confrontation space for a large number of scholars of several fields coping with signs and signification. Its foundation and activities have contributed to consolidate the perception of semiotics as an academic field in its own right both in Italy and in Europe.

Versus has published original articles by most influential European semioticians, including Umberto Eco, A.J. Greimas, Jean-Marie Floch, Paolo Fabbri, , , and Patrizia Violi. At the same time, almost every issue also contains articles by younger, less famous semioticians dealing with new research perspectives in semiotics. In 1988, at the University of Bologna, Eco created an unusual program of anthropology of the West by non-Westerners (African and Chinese scholars, as defined by their own criteria), the Transcultura international network based on an idea earlier developed by Alain Le Pichon in West Africa. This program resulted in a first conference in Guangzhou, China, in 1991 on "Frontiers of Knowledge", followed by an Itinerant Euro-Chinese seminar on "Misunderstandings in the Quest for the Universal", along the silk trade route from Canton to Beijing, culminating in a book, "The Unicorn and the Dragon", where scholars from China (in particular , and ), as well as from Europe (, Antoine Danchin, Jacques Le Goff, Paolo Fabbri, ...) discussed the question of the creation of knowledge in China and in Europe. In 2000 a seminar in Timbuktoo (Mali), followed by a reflection on the conditions of reciprocal knowledge in Bologna gave rise to a series of conferences in Europe (Brussels and Paris) and in India (Goa), which led to a conference in Beijing in 2007 on Order and Disorder, New concepts of War and Peace, Human and Rights, and Social Justice and Harmony, where Eco presented the opening lecture, followed by anthropologists from India (, Varun Sahni, Rukmini Bhaya Nair), from Africa (Moussa Sow), from Europe (Roland Marti, ) and from Korea (CHA Insuk), China (, ZHAO Tinyang), as well as scholars from the domain of law or science (Antoine Danchin, Ahmed Djebbar, ).

This non conventional interest for an investigation of the West by non-Westerners can be seen to match the interest of Eco for the international auxiliary language Esperanto.

Novels

Eco's fiction has enjoyed a wide audience around the world, with good sales and many translations. His novels often include references to arcane historical figures and texts and his dense, intricate plots tend to take dizzying turns.

Eco employed his education as a medievalist in his novel The Name of the Rose, a historical mystery set in a 14th century monastery. Franciscan friar William of Baskerville, aided by his assistant Adso, a Benedictine novice, investigates a series of murders at a monastery that is set to host an important religious debate. Eco is particularly good at translating medieval religious controversies and heresies into modern political and economic terms so that the reader can appreciate their substance without being a theologian. The Name of the Rose was later made into a motion picture starring Sean Connery, F. Murray Abraham and Christian Slater.

Foucault's Pendulum, Eco's second novel, has also sold well. In Foucault's Pendulum, three under-employed editors who work for a minor publishing house decide to amuse themselves by inventing a conspiracy theory. Their conspiracy, which they call "The Plan", is about an immense and intricate plot to take over the world by a secret order descended from the Knights Templar. As the game goes on, the three slowly become obsessed with the details of this plan. The game turns dangerous when outsiders learn of The Plan, and believe that the men have really discovered the secret to regaining the lost treasure of the Templars.

Eco's work illustrates the postmodernist concept of intertextuality, or the inter-connectedness of all literary works. His novels are full of subtle, often multilingual, references to literature and history. For instance, the character William of Baskerville is a logically-minded Englishman who is a monk and a detective, and his name evokes both William of Ockham and Sherlock Holmes (by way of The Hound of the Baskervilles). Eco cites James Joyce and Jorge Luis Borges as the two modern authors who have influenced his work the most (Source: 'On Literature').

Honorary doctorates

Since 1985, Umberto Eco has been awarded over thirty Honorary doctorates from various academic institutions worldwide, including the following:

1985 - Doctor Honoris Causa, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
1986 - Doctor Honoris Causa, Odense University, Denmark.
1987 - Doctor Honoris Causa, Loyola University, Chicago.
1987 - Doctor Honoris Causa, State University of New York.
1987 - Doctor Honoris Causa, Royal College of Arts, London.
1988 - Doctor Honoris Causa, Brown University.
1989 - Doctor Honoris Causa, Université de Paris, Sorbonne Nouvelle.
1989 - Doctor Honoris Causa, Université de Liège.
1990 - Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Sofia.
1990 - Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Glasgow.
1990 - Doctor Honoris Causa, Unversidad Complutense de Madrid.
1992 - Doctor Honoris Causa, Kent University, Canterbury.
1993 - Doctor Honoris Causa, Indiana University.
1994 - Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Tel Aviv.
1994 - Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Buenos Aires.
1995 - Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Athens.
1995 - Doctor Honoris Causa, Laurentian University at Sudbury (Ontario.
1996 - Docotr Honoris Causa, Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw.
1996 - Docotr Honoris Causa, University of Tartu, Estonia.
1997 - Doctor Honoris Causa, Université de Grenoble.
1997 - Doctor Honoris Causa, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha.
1998 - Doctor Honoris Causa, Lomonosov University of Moscow.
1998 - Doctor Honoris Causa, Freie Universität, Berlin.
2000 - Doctor Honoris Causa, Université du Québec à Montréal, Quebec.
2002 - Doctor Honoris Causa, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
2002 - Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Siena, Siena.

References

Bibliography

Novels

• Il nome della rosa (1980 - English translation: The Name of the Rose, 1983)
• Il pendolo di Foucault (1988 - English translation: Foucault's Pendulum, 1989)
• L'isola del giorno prima (1994 - English translation: The Island of the Day Before, 1995)
• Baudolino (2000 - English translation: Baudolino)
• La misteriosa fiamma della regina Loana (2004 - English translation: The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, 2005)

Books on philosophy

Areas of philosophy Eco has written most about include semiotics, linguistics, aesthetics and morality.

• Il problema estetico in San Tommaso (1956 - English translation: The Aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas, 1988, Revised)
• "Sviluppo dell'estetica medievale", in Momenti e problemi di storia dell'estetica (1959 - Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages, 1985)
• Opera aperta (1962, rev. 1976 - English translation: The Open Work (1989)
• Diario Minimo (1963 - English translation: Misreadings, 1993)
• Apocalittici e integrati (1964 - Partial English translation: Apocalypse Postponed, 1994)
• Le poetiche di Joyce (1965 - English translations: The Middle Ages of James Joyce, The Aesthetics of Chaosmos, 1989)
• Il costume di casa (1973 - English translation: Travels in Hyperreality, Faith in Fakes, 1986)
• Trattato di semiotica generale (1975 - English translation: A Theory of Semiotics, 1976)
• Il Superuomo di massa (1976)
• Dalla periferia dell'impero (1977)
• Lector in fabula (1979)
• The Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts (1979 - English edition containing essays from Opera aperta, Apocalittici e integrati, Forme del contenuto (1971), Il Superuomo di massa, Lector in Fabula).
• Sette anni di desiderio (1983)
• Postille al nome della rosa (1983 - English translation: Postscript to The Name of the Rose, 1984)
• Semiotica e filosofia del linguaggio (1984 - English translation: Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language, 1984)
• I limiti dell'interpretazione (1990 - The Limits of Interpretation, 1990)
• Interpretation and Overinterpretation (1992 - with R. Rorty, J. Culler, C. Brooke-Rose; edited by S. Collini)
• La ricerca della lingua perfetta nella cultura europea (1993 - English translation: The Search for the Perfect Language (The Making of Europe), 1995)
• Six Walks in the Fictional Woods (1994)
• Incontro - Encounter - Rencontre (1996 - in Italian, English, French)
• In cosa crede chi non crede? (with Carlo Maria Martini), 1996 - English translation: Belief or Nonbelief?: A Dialogue, 2000)
• Cinque scritti morali (1997 - English translation: Five Moral Pieces, 2001)
• Kant e l'ornitorinco (1997 - English translation: , 1999)
• Serendipities: Language and Lunacy (1998)
• How to Travel with a Salmon & Other Essays (1998 - Partial English translation of Il secondo diario minimo, 1994)
• Experiences in Translation (2000)
• On Literature (2004) (Sulla letteratura, 2003)
• Mouse or Rat?: Translation as negotiation (2003)
• Storia della bellezza (2004, co-edited with Girolamo de Michele - English translation: History of Beauty/On Beauty, 2004)

Manual

• Come si fa una tesi di laurea (1977)

Books for children

(art by Eugenio Carmi)

• La bomba e il generale (1966, Rev. 1988 - English translation: The Bomb and the General'
• I tre cosmonauti (1966 - English translation: The Three Astronauts')
• Gli gnomi di Gnu (1992)

External links

• Porta Ludovica: An extensive Umberto Eco resource.
• Eco talk at UC Berkeley (1982): "From Aristotle to Sherlock Holmes" (online audio recording)
• Eco's talk in Alexandria on "Vegetal and mineral memory" which considers, among other things, encyclopedias.
• IMDb.com Listing: The Name of the Rose (film)
• Ur-Fascism (essay in The New York Review of Books, June 22, 1995)
• Unofficial Umberto Eco MySpace profile
• "A Conversation on Information" Interview with Umberto Eco by Patrick Coppock, February, 1995
• "Offical Website"