On LiteratureIn 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. |
Contents
ON SOME FUNCTIONS OF LITERATURE | 1 |
A READING OF THE PARADISO | 16 |
ON THE STYLE OF THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO | 23 |
THE MISTS OF THE VALOIS | 28 |
PARADOX AND APHORISM | 62 |
A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS BACHELOR | 84 |
BETWEEN LA MANCHA AND BABEL | 104 |
BORGES AND MY ANXIETY OF INFLUENCE | 118 |
ON STYLE | 161 |
LES SEMAPHORES SOUS LA PLUIE | 180 |
THE FLAWS IN THE FORM | 201 |
INTERTEXTUAL IRONY AND LEVELS OF READING | 212 |
THE POETICS AND US | 236 |
THE AMERICAN MYTH IN THREE ANTIAMERICAN GENERATIONS | 255 |
THE POWER OF FALSEHOOD | 272 |
HOW I WRITE | 302 |
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Common terms and phrases
Adrienne aesthetics already America aphorisms Aristotle Babel baroque Baudolino beauty become Book of Kells Borges Borges's Borgesian Camporesi century certainly Châalis chapter characters course criticism culture dance Dante Dante's discourse Divine Divine Comedy earth Ermenonville everything exist expression fact fiction Finnegans Wake Foucault's Pendulum Gérard de Nerval happens hypotyposis idea imagine influence interpretation intertextual irony invented Italian Jerard Joyce Labrunie language Library of Babel Linda Hutcheon literary literature live Loisy mean medieval metanarrative metaphor narration narrative Nerval never novel paradox Pareyson passion perhaps play plot Poetics poetry precisely Prester John reader reference reread Roberto Rose Rosicrucians semiotic sense someone space speak stopgap story structure style sublime Sylvie symbolic talk tell textual theater theory things tion translation true truth Umberto Eco universe words write written