Signs and Blunders

Abstract

Umberto Eco's new book – a series of lectures given in 2010 – is in some part a summarised restatement of his theories on the interpretation of fiction. In this respect it is a useful primer for readers who are unfamiliar with his previous writing on this subject. Those who have read Eco's earlier work, however, may be disappointed by the paucity of new material. This is particularly apparent in the sections on critical interpretations of his novels The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum. Passages from Eco's earlier books Six Walks in the Fictional Woods and Interpretation and Overinterpretation are repeated in Confessions. Interpretation and Overinterpretation contains a lecture given twenty years ago in which Eco reported a response that he had ‘recently’ received from a reader of The Name of the Rose.1 The anecdote is retold in Confessions without the removal of the word ‘recently’ (p. 54). Nevertheless, even those who are familiar with Eco's writings will find some new material in Confessions in its discussions of how fictional texts come into being, why fictional characters seem real to readers, and how fiction may be said to possess ethical value.