The Limits of Interpretation

Front Cover
Indiana University Press, 1994 - Literary Criticism - 295 pages

"Eco's essays read like letters from a friend, trying to share something he loves with someone he likes. . . . Read this brilliant, enjoyable, and possibly revolutionary book." —George J. Leonard, San Francisco Review of Books

" . . . a wealth of insight and instruction." —J. O. Tate, National Review

"If anyone can make [semiotics] clear, it's Professor Eco. . . . Professor Eco's theme deserves respect; language should be used to communicate more easily without literary border guards." —The New York Times

"The limits of interpretation mark the limits of our world. Umberto Eco's new collection of essays touches deftly on such matters." —Times Literary Supplement

"It is a careful and challenging collection of essays that broach topics rarely considered with any seriousness by literary theorists." —Diacritics

Umberto Eco focuses here on what he once called "the cancer of uncontrolled interpretation"—that is, the belief that many interpreters have gone too far in their domination of texts, thereby destroying meaning and the basis for communication.

From inside the book

 

Selected pages

Contents

Introduction
1
Two Models of Interpretation
8
Pragmaticism vs Pragmatism
23
The State of the Art
44
Small Worlds
64
Interpreting Serials
83
Interpreting Drama
101
Interpreting Animals
111
Abduction in Uqbar
152
Pirandello Ridens
163
Fakes and Forgeries
174
Semantics Pragmatics and Text Semiotics
203
Presuppositions
222
A Fiction
263
REFERENCES
283
INDEX292
292

A Portrait of the Elder as a Young Pliny
123
Joyce Semiosis and Semiotics137
137
Copyright

Other editions - View all

The Limits of Interpretation
Umberto Eco
Snippet view - 1990
The Limits of Interpretation
Umberto Eco
Snippet view - 1994
The Limits of Interpretation
Umberto Eco
Snippet view - 1990

Common terms and phrases

according actual world addressee aesthetics animal Antipodeans Aristotle asserts authenticity Averroes background Boethius Claimant Comic consider context contrary Corpus Hermeticum critical defined definite descriptions Derrida discourse Don Isidro encyclopedia epistemic world Ex-Nihilo example existence existential presuppositions expression fact fake false fictional fictional world Finnegans Wake forgery given happens Hermetic Humor idea identical instance intention interpretation intertextual John knowledge language lexeme linguistic matter meaning medieval metaphor metonymy Model Reader narrative natural negation Neoplatonic notion object original Owoto p-terms Peirce Peirce's phenomena Pirandello Pliny the Younger point of view possible world pragmatic presupposes presuppositions problem produced properties proposition propositional attitudes reading reference representation rhetorical rules semantic semiotic sense sentence serial signified Smith speak story strategy supposed symbol synechism Tacitus tell textual theory things tion true truth understand unlimited semiosis utterance verbs words

References to this book

About the author (1994)

Umberto Eco was born in Alessandria, Italy on January 5, 1932. He received a doctorate of philosophy from the University of Turin in 1954. His first book, Il Problema Estetico in San Tommaso, was an extension of his doctoral thesis on St. Thomas Aquinas and was published in 1956. His first novel, The Name of the Rose, was published in 1980 and won the Premio Strega and the Premio Anghiar awards in 1981. In 1986, it was adapted into a movie starring Sean Connery. His other works include Foucault's Pendulum, The Island of the Day Before, Baudolino, The Prague Cemetery, and Numero Zero. He also wrote children's books and more than 20 nonfiction books including Serendipities: Language and Lunacy. He taught philosophy and then semiotics at the University of Bologna. He also wrote weekly columns on popular culture and politics for L'Espresso. He died from cancer on February 19, 2016 at the age of 84.

Bibliographic information

TitleThe Limits of Interpretation
Volume 869 of A Midland book
ACLS Humanities E-Book
Advances in Semiotics
AuthorUmberto Eco
Editionillustrated, reprint
PublisherIndiana University Press, 1994
ISBN0253208696, 9780253208699
Length295 pages
Subjects › 

Literary Criticism / General
Literary Criticism / Semiotics & Theory
Philosophy / General
  
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