The Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts

Front Cover
Indiana University Press, 1979 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 273 pages
In this collection of nine essays, Umberto Eco sets forth a dialectic between 'open' and 'closed' texts, between a work of art that actively involves the 'addressee' in its production and one that holds the 'addressee' at bay and seeks to evoke a limited and predetermined response. He investigates the contributions of contemporary semantics to the study of narrative, and connects the modalities of textual interpretation with the problem of possible worlds.
 

Selected pages

Contents

I
3
II
45
III
47
IV
67
V
90
VI
105
VII
107
VIII
125
IX
144
X
173
XI
175
XII
200
Copyright

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The Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts
Umberto Eco
Snippet view - 1981
The Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts
Umberto Eco
Snippet view - 1979
The Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts
Umberto Eco
Snippet view - 1979
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Common terms and phrases

according actual Adam addressee aesthetic Alphonse Allais already ambiguous analysis apple becomes Blofeld Bond Casino Royale character concerned consider contiguity coupé cultural definition Drame elements encyclopedia Eugène Sue example expression fabula fact factual judgment fictional Figure Finnegans Wake Fleming forecasts ghost chapters given Goldfinger guerite happens ideological imagine individuals inferential walks intensional interpretation intertextual intertextual frames isotopy language lexeme literary logical macropropositions Majesty's Secret Service Mandrake means metaphor metonymic Model Reader Mystères narrative structures notion novel object Oedipus overcoding Peirce Pirogue plot poetic possible world predicate problem produce propositional attitudes Raoul and Marguerite reading Red Grant representamen representation Rodolphe roles Rosa Klebb semantic disclosures sememe semiosis semiotic sense sequence situation story strategy Sue's Superman Templar textual theory Thunderball tion topic universe Villain W₁ words world of reference world structure

References to this book

About the author (1979)

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 Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts
Advances in Semiotics, ISSN 2692-0409
Volume 318 of Midland books
AuthorUmberto Eco
Editionillustrated, reprint
PublisherIndiana University Press, 1979
ISBN025320318X, 9780253203182
Length273 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / General
Literary Criticism / Semiotics & Theory
  
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