Search results for ""author umberto eco""

Umberto Eco, autor de novelas de éxito e importante teórico literario, funde en este libro esos dos papeles en un provocador debate en torno al controvertido tema de la interpretación literaria. La iluminadora y a menudo ocurrente reflexión de Eco va de Dante a "El nombre de la rosa", de "El péndulo de Foucault" a Chomsky y Derrida, y lleva todos los sellos de su inimitable estilo personal.

Read more less

Un llibre d?instruccions ben peculiar de la mà d?un dels genis del segle XX.Com viatjar amb un salmó és un manual d?instruccions sui generis a càrrec d?un mestre excepcional, el savi Umberto Eco. Com fer vacances intelligents, sobreviure a la burocràcia, evitar malalties contagioses, no fer servir el mòbil, sortir a la televisió encara que no ens conegui ningú, no parlar de futbol, menjar gelat o viatjar amb un salmó (si te?l regalen i no vols renunciar a aquesta exquisidesa) són algunes de les situacions que el mestre ens descriu amb el seu habitual sentit de l?humor.Aquesta selecció d?articles, molts d?ells inèdits, ens recorda que la vida passa en les petites coses, a les trobades d?atzar i els problemes menors. Lleugeresa, ironia i finezza de la mà d?un gran intellectual del nostre temps.

Read more less

"...not merely interesting and novel, but also exceedingly provocative and heuristically fertile." -The Review of Metaphysics "...essential reading for anyone interesting in...the new reader-centered forms of criticism." -Library Journal In this erudite and imaginative book, Umberto Eco sets forth a dialectic between 'open' and 'closed' texts.

Read more less

The year is 1327. Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate.When his delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William turns detective. He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and coded manuscripts, and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey where extraordinary things are happening under the over of night. A spectacular popular and critical success, The Name of the Rose is not only a narrative of a murder investigation but an astonishing chronicle of the Middle Ages.

Read more less

La novela emblemática de Umberto Eco.  Una trama apasionante. Una admirable reconstrucción del conflictivo siglo XIV «Umberto Eco cambió nuestra mirada sobre los libros: imprescindibles,  pequeños, frágiles, a veces criminales, casi siempre salvadores. Un maestro que nos enseñó a entrelazar la sabiduría y el juego con su estilo sagaz y lúdico, con su asombrosa inventiva y certera lucidez.» Irene Vallejo UNO DE LOS 100 TÍTULOS FUNDAMENTALES DEL SIGLO XX SEGÚN LE MONDE  Valiéndose de las características de la novela gótica, la crónica medieval y la novela policíaca, El nombre de la rosa narra las investigaciones detectivescas que realiza el fraile franciscano Guillermo de Baskerville para esclarecer los crímenes cometidos en una abadía benedictina en el año 1327. Le ayudará en

Read more less

El concepto de estética nace en Europa en el siglo XVIII y, por lo tanto, muchas historias de la estética tomaron en escasa consideración las teorías de la belleza y del arte elaboradas anteriormente. Ahora bien, desde hace más de cincuenta años la actitud de los historiadores ha cambiado y la Edad Media se ha valorizado como una época rica en especulaciones fascinantes sobre la belleza, el placer estético, el gusto, la belleza natural y artificial, las relaciones entre el arte y las demás actividades humanas. En este compendio de las teorías estéticas elaboradas por la cultura del Medioevo, desde el siglo VI hasta el XV de nuestra era, Eco recorre, de forma accesible para el lector no especializado, las etapas de un debate que, a partir de la Patrística y hasta los albores del Renacimiento, presenta aspectos dramáticos y apasionantes, y nos permite entender mejor la mentalidad, el gusto y los humores del hombre medieval...Un estudio delicioso? Tremendamente lúcido y fácil de leer, el

Read more less

Umberto Eco nos ilumina en esta ocasión acerca del difícil arte de la traducción...En un libro ameno, didáctico, que conserva el tono de las conferencias -dictadas en Toronto, Oxford y Bolonia- que lo inspiraron. Además de prestigioso semiólogo, veterano polemista, prolífico ensayista y convencido humanista, Umberto Eco es uno de los novelistas que más éxito ha cosechado en el mundo entero.La experiencia de ver traducida su vasta obra a tantas lenguas le ha dado la privilegiada oportunidad de acercarse a los problemas concretos de la traducción y extraer una serie de conclusiones reveladoras, útiles, muy persuasivas. La cuestión central radica en la pregunta qué quiere decir traducir?, y en la respuesta que Eco ofrece y explica: decir casi lo mismo. A primera vista, podría parecer que todo el esfuerzo se centra en definir o acotar ese casi pero enseguida surgen dudas en torno al propio decir e incluso en ese lo mismo. De la pregunta a la respuesta, este libro constituye una

Read more less

The idea that there once existed a language which perfectly and unambiguously expressed the essence of all possible things and concepts has occupied the minds of philosophers, theologians, mystics and others for at least two millennia. This is an investigation into the history of that idea and of its profound influence on European thought, culture and history. From the early Dark Ages to the Renaissance it was widely believed that the language spoken in the Garden of Eden was just such a language, and that all current languages were its decadent descendants from the catastrophe of the Fall and at Babel. The recovery of that language would, for theologians, express the nature of divinity, for cabbalists allow access to hidden knowledge and power, and for philosophers reveal the nature of truth. Versions of these ideas remained current in the Enlightenment, and have recently received fresh impetus in attempts to create a natural language for artificial intelligence. The story that Umberto Eco tells ranges widely from the writings of Augustine, Dante, Descartes and Rousseau, arcane treatises on cabbalism and magic, to the history of the study of language and its origins. He demonstrates the initimate relation between language and identity and describes, for example, how and why the Irish, English, Germans and Swedes - one of whom presented God talking in Swedish to Adam, who replied in Danish, while the serpent tempted Eve in French - have variously claimed their language as closest to the original. He also shows how the late eighteenth-century discovery of a proto-language (Indo-European) for the Aryan peoples was perverted to support notions of racial superiority. To this subtle exposition of a history of extraordinary complexity, Umberto Eco links the associated history of the manner in which the sounds of language and concepts have been written and symbolized. Lucidly and wittily written, the book is, in sum, a tour de force of scholarly detection and cultural interpretation, providing a series of original perspectives on two thousand years of European History. The paperback edition of this book is not available through Blackwell outside of North America.

Read more less

Who is killing monks in a great medieval abbey famed for its library - and why? Brother William of Baskerville is sent to find out, taking with him the assistant who later tells the tale of his investigations. Eco's celebrated story combines elements of detective fiction, metaphysical thriller, post-modernist puzzle and historical novel in one of the few twentieth-century books which can be described as genuinely unique.The Name of the Rose was made into a film in 1986, starring Sean Connery and Christian Slater and directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud.

Read more less

Read the enthralling medieval murder mystery. The year is 1327. Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. When his delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William turns detective. William collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and coded manuscripts, and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey where extraordinary things are happening under the cover of night. A spectacular popular and critical success, The Name of the Rose is not only a narrative of a murder investigation but an astonishing chronicle of the Middle Ages.'Whether you're into Sherlock Holmes, Montaillou, Borges, the nouvelle critique, the Rule of St. Benedict, metaphysics, library design, or The Thing from the Crypt, you'll love it' Sunday Times

Read more less

Aventura picaresca, novela histórica, relato de un delito imposible, teatro de invenciones lingüísticas hilarantes.Umberto Eco regresa a la Edad Media con una fascinante historia donde se confunden y entremezclan hazañas prodigiosas e inverosímiles, propias de los libros de caballerías, con andanzas y viajes a países remotos y escenarios desconocidos, un vasto fresco narrativo en el que se conjugan elementos de la novela histórica con otros propios del relato de intriga, de aventuras o del género policíaco.En una zona del bajo Piamonte donde, años después, surgirá Alejandría, Baudolino, un pequeño campesino, fantasioso y embustero, conquista a Federico Barbarroja y se convierte en su hijo adoptivo. Baudolino fabula e inventa, pero, casi milagrosamente, todo aquello que imagina genera Historia. Así, entre otras cosas, crea la mítica carta del Preste Juan, que prometía a Occidente un reino fabuloso, en el lejano Oriente, gobernado por un rey cristiano, una carta que ha nutrido la

Read more less

In this new collection of essays, Eco focuses on what he calls the limits of interpretation, or, as he once noted in another context, ""the cancer of uncontrolled interpretation"". Readers of Eco's other work will find here all the ingredients with which they have become familiar--vast learning, an agile and exciting mind, good humor and a brilliance of insight.

Read more less

"Eco wittily and enchantingly develops themes often touched on in his previous works, but he delves deeper into their complex nature...this collection can be read with pleasure by those unversed in semiotic theory." -Times Literary Supplement

Read more less

Remarkably accessible and unfailingly stimulating, this collection of essays exhibits the diversity of interests and the depth of knowledge that made Umberto Eco one of the world's leading writers. From musings on Ptolemy and reflections on the experimental writing of Borges and Joyce, to revelations of his own authorial ambitions and fears, Eco's luminous intelligence is on display throughout. This volume will appeal to anyone interested in how new light is shed on old masters by a great contemporary mind.

Read more less

Las catorce claves de Umberto Eco para reconocer el fascismo: un manifiesto urgente.«Un genio inagotable, voraz, que construye y deconstruye sin cesar, de inteligencia deslumbrante y humorística cuando hace falta.».-Mercedes Monmany, ABC «Uno de los pensadores más influyentes de nuestro tiempo.».-Los Angeles Times «El fascismo eterno aún nos rodea, aunque lleve traje de paisano. Puede volver en cualquier momento, aunque se disfrace de las formas más inocuas. Nuestro deber es detectarlo, quitarle la máscara y denunciar en voz alta cada una de sus gestas.» En esta conferencia dirigida a los alumnos de una universidad norteamericana en 1995, Umberto Eco alertaba frente a la sombra alargada de un fenómeno que no se restringe al ámbito político ni tiene fecha de caducidad, porque tras un régimen y una ideología h

Read more less

An erudite and witty collection of Umberto Eco's essays on mass culture from the 1960s through the 1980s, including major pieces which have not been translated into English before. The discussion is framed by opposing characterizations of current intellectuals as apocalyptic and opposed to all mass culture, or as integrated intellectuals, so much a part of mass culture as to be unaware of serving it. Organized in four main parts, "Mass Culture: Apocalypse Postponed," "Mass Media and the Limits of Communication," "The Rise and Fall of Counter-Cultures," and "In Search of Italian Genius," Eco looks at a variety of topics and cultural productions, including the world of Charlie Brown, distinctions between highbrow and lowbrow, the future of literacy, Chinese comic strips, whether countercultures exist, Fellini's Ginger and Fred, and the Italian genius industry.

Read more less

An extraordinary epic, brilliantly-imagined, new novel from a world-class writer and author of The Name of the Rose. Discover the Middle Ages with Baudolino - a wondrous, dazzling, beguiling tale of history, myth and invention. It is 1204, and Constantinople is being sacked and burned by the knights of the fourth Crusade. Amid the carnage and confusion Baudolino saves a Byzantine historian and high court official from certain death at the hands of the crusading warriors, and proceeds to tell his own fantastical story.

Read more less

In this authoritative, lively book, the celebrated Italian novelist and philosopher Umberto Eco presents a learned summary of medieval aesthetic ideas. Juxtaposing theology and science, poetry and mysticism, Eco explores the relationship that existed between the aesthetic theories and the artistic experience and practice of medieval culture. “[A] delightful study. . . . [Eco’s] remarkably lucid and readable essay is full of contemporary relevance and informed by the energies of a man in love with his subject.” —Robert Taylor, Boston Globe “The book lays out so many exciting ideas and interesting facts that readers will find it gripping.” —Washington Post Book World “A lively introduction to the subject.” —Michael Camille, The Burlington Magazine “If you want to become acquainted with medieval aesthetics, you will not find a more scrupulously researched, better written (or better translated), intelligent and illuminating introduction than Eco’s short volume.” —D. C. Barrett, Art Monthly

Read more less

On the day of his wedding, Edmond Dantes, master mariner, is arrested in Marseille on trumped-up charges and spirited away to the cellars of the Chateau d'If, an impregnable sea fortress in which he is imprisoned indefinitely. Escaping from the chateau by a series of daring manoeuvres, he unearths a great treasure on the island of Monte Cristo, buried there by a former fellow prisoner who bequeaths to him the secret of its whereabouts. Thus armed with unimaginable wealth and embittered by his long imprisonment, he resolves to devote his life to tracking down and punishing those responsible. This classic nineteenth-century translation has been revised and updated by Peter Washington, with an introduction by award-winning novelist Umberto Eco.

Read more less

In this book Umberto Eco argues that translation is not about comparing two languages, but about the interpretation of a text in two different languages, thus involving a shift between cultures. An author whose works have appeared in many languages, Eco is also the translator of G rard de Nerval's Sylvie and Raymond Queneau's Exercices de style from French into Italian. In Experiences in Translation he draws on his substantial practical experience to identify and discuss some central problems of translation. As he convincingly demonstrates, a translation can express an evident deep sense of a text even when violating both lexical and referential faithfulness. Depicting translation as a semiotic task, he uses a wide range of source materials as illustration: the translations of his own and other novels, translations of the dialogue of American films into Italian, and various versions of the Bible. In the second part of his study he deals with translation theories proposed by Jakobson, Steiner, Peirce, and others. Overall, Eco identifies the different types of interpretive acts that count as translation. An enticing new typology emerges, based on his insistence on a common-sense approach and the necessity of taking a critical stance.

Read more less

The idea that there once existed a language which perfectly and unambiguously expressed the essence of all possible things and concepts has occupied the minds of philosophers, theologians, mystics and others for at least two millennia. This is an investigation into the history of that idea and of its profound influence on European thought, culture and history. From the early Dark Ages to the Renaissance it was widely believed that the language spoken in the Garden of Eden was just such a language, and that all current languages were its decadent descendants from the catastrophe of the Fall and at Babel. The recovery of that language would, for theologians, express the nature of divinity, for cabbalists allow access to hidden knowledge and power, and for philosophers reveal the nature of truth. Versions of these ideas remained current in the Enlightenment, and have recently received fresh impetus in attempts to create a natural language for artificial intelligence. The story that Umberto Eco tells ranges widely from the writings of Augustine, Dante, Descartes and Rousseau, arcane treatises on cabbalism and magic, to the history of the study of language and its origins. He demonstrates the initimate relation between language and identity and describes, for example, how and why the Irish, English, Germans and Swedes - one of whom presented God talking in Swedish to Adam, who replied in Danish, while the serpent tempted Eve in French - have variously claimed their language as closest to the original. He also shows how the late eighteenth-century discovery of a proto-language (Indo-European) for the Aryan peoples was perverted to support notions of racial superiority. To this subtle exposition of a history of extraordinary complexity, Umberto Eco links the associated history of the manner in which the sounds of language and concepts have been written and symbolized. Lucidly and wittily written, the book is, in sum, a tour de force of scholarly detection and cultural interpretation, providing a series of original perspectives on two thousand years of European History. The paperback edition of this book is not available through Blackwell outside of North America.

Read more less

Embracing the web of multi-culturalism that has become a fact of contemporary life from New York to New Delhi, Eco argues that we are more connected to people of other traditions and customs than ever before, making tolerance the ultimate value in today's world. What good, he asks in a talk delivered during the Gulf War, does war do in a world where the flow of goods, services, and information is unstoppable, and the enemy is always behind the lines? What makes news today, who decides how it will be presented and how does the way it is disseminated contribute to the widespread disillusionment with politics in general? In one of the most personal of the essays, Eco recalls experiencing liberation from fascism in Italy as a boy, and examines the various historical forms of fascism, always with an eye toward such ugly manifestations today. And finally, in an intensely personal open letter to an Italian Cardinal, Eco reflects on a question underlying all the reflections in the book - what does it mean to be moral or ethical when one doesn't believe in God? As thoughtful and subtle as they are pragmatic and relevant, these essays present one of the world's most important thinkers at the height of his critical powers.

Read more less

" . . . the greatest contribution to [semiotics] since the pioneering work of C. S. Peirce and Charles Morris." —Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism" . . . draws on philosophy, linguistics, sociology, anthropology and aesthetics and refers to a wide range of scholarship . . . raises many fascinating questions." —Language in Society" . . . a major contribution to the field of semiotic studies." —Robert Scholes, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism" . . . the most significant text on the subject published in the English language that I know of." —Arthur Asa Berger, Journal of CommunicationEco's treatment demonstrates his mastery of the field of semiotics. It focuses on the twin problems of the doctrine of signs—communication and signification—and offers a highly original theory of sign production, including a carefully wrought typology of signs and modes of production.

Read more less

The final collection from the internationally acclaimed and bestselling author of The Name of the Rose and The Prague Cemetery, on the subjects of art and culture.In this collection of essays we find Umberto Eco’s perennial areas of interest explored in a lively and engaging style, accompanied by beautiful reproductions of the art he discusses. In these wide-ranging pieces he explores the roots of our civilization, changing ideas of beauty, our obsession with conspiracies and the emblematic heroes of the great narrative, amongst other fascinating topics.Umberto Eco was one of the most influential, and entertaining, intellectuals of the last century, as well as being a critically acclaimed and bestselling writer of both fiction and non-fiction.

Read more less