1. The Poetics of the Open Work 2. Analysis of Poetic Language 3. Openness, Information, Communication 4. The Open Work in the Visual Arts 5. Chance and Plot: Television and Aesthetics 6. Form as Social Commitment 7. Form and Interpretation in Luigi Pareyson's Aesthetics 8. Two Hypotheses about the Death of Art 9. The Structure of Bad Taste 10. Series and Structure 11. The Death of the Gruppo 63 Notes Index
Umberto Eco (1932–2016) was an internationally acclaimed writer, philosopher, medievalist, and professor, and the author of the best-selling novels Foucault’s Pendulum, The Name of the Rose, and The Prague Cemetery, as well as children’s books. His numerous nonfiction books include Confessions of a Young Novelist, Six Walks in the Fictional Woods, and The Open Work (all from Harvard). He was a recipient of the Premio Strega, Italy’s highest literary prize; the Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities; and a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur from the government of France.
This collection of newly translated essays presents Eco's response to the aesthetics of Benedetto Croce, which have had considerable influence in Italian thought for several decades. Eco's idea of ``open'' works of art, those that ``have in common . . . the artist's decision to leave the arrangement of some of their constituents either to the public or to chance'' is challenging and will disturb traditionalists. Nevertheless, as with his other books, Eco writes insightfully and forcefully, and the variety of subjects tackled here is illuminating, ranging from language and communication in general, to television and mass culture. Highly recommended for academic libraries and informed readers.-- Terry Skeats, Bishop's Univ. Lib., Lennoxville, Quebec
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