2. Introduction to “The
Name of the Rose”
a. The Author
The biggest Italian name to break
into the contemporary English literary scene, Umberto Eco could boast of
multitudinous achievements. He was a polymath, a man of expansive erudition. He
excelled in the world of writing, philosophy and linguistics. As an
academician, he would be most remembered in the field of semiotics, the area in
which he wrote most of his scholarly contributions. (cf. Cook, 2013).
Born to middle class parents on
January 5, 1932 in the Piedmontese town of Alessandria in Italy, he quickly
felt the allure of books, reading, and writing through the subtle influence of
some members of his family. (cf. Zanganeh, 2008).
As an adolescent Eco tried his
hand in comic books and fantasy stories set in some imaginary place in Asia and
Africa. He also dabbled in poetry,
which later on he abandoned. Describing his poetic opera, he said: “My poetry
had the same functional origin and the same formal configuration as teenage
acne.” (Zanganeh, 2008).
While a university student in
Turin, Eco’s Catholic upbringing led him to a fascination with medieval studies
and the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas. This passion has stayed with him all
throughout his life, even as he admits his forays into the state of
unbelief. While his faith in God
has faded, the writer continued to affirm the gift of religion and its
beneficial contribution to humanity.
Speaking of his attraction to the
Middle Ages, Eco believed in the richness of this period as the catalyst for
the eventual appearance of the Renaissance. It was “a period of chaotic and
effervescent transition—the birth of the modern city, of the banking system, of
the university, of our modern idea of Europe, with its languages, nations, and
cultures.” (Zanganeh, 2008).
Eco experienced career shifts,
moving from journalism for an Italian television network, writing literary
criticism with a special focus on James Joyce, and teaching in the University
of Bologna, Europe’s oldest university, as an expert of semiotics.
Semiotics is the science of
signs. A semiotician “studies words, pictures, gestures, objects, symbolic and
verbal languages, ideas, and ideologies insofar as they may serve as signs -
that is, vehicles of meaning.” (Rubin, 1983). In a world full of meaning,
semiotics is concerned less with what people mean than how people mean. This
science is therefore the process of communicating meaning through signs around
us.
As a columnist for the Italian
magazine L’Espresso, Eco has
championed a new philosophical path that may be called “neo-enlightenment” in
which he prefers “methological doubting versus dogmatism, and the use of parody
and irony against sectarian thought; his idea of culture is that it is mainly a
channel of interdisciplinary exchange rather than a provider of certainties or
a chapel for hermetic and initiatory rites.” (Ferrucci, 1983).
In reaching his 48th
year, Eco penned his first novel, “The
Name of the Rose,” which became one of the international publishing
sensations of the last century. The book was translated into as many as 47
languages and was morphed into a full-length film, heightening the author’s
fame both within and outside of his native country. Critics spoke highly of the
intellectual and literary calibre of the emerging novelist.
“Eco is a
writer who can be spoken of in the same breath as James Joyce or even
Shakespeare. Reading an Eco novel is a feat. He challenges his readers with
universes that rarely make sense. The religious faith of his characters is
challenged at every turn— but it is never vanquished. Eco is a never agnostic.
Whether in “The Name of the Rose” or
“Foucault’s Pendulum,” room is always
left for faith to be on the right side of history.” (Cromwell and Marcus,
2016).
From professor, the writer has
passed to a widely acclaimed literary star, awarded the Italian “Premio Straga”
in 1981. (Cane, n.d.). He was also bestowed the “Prix Médicis Étranger Award” the most
important French literary citation. (Ferrucci, 1983). This first novel that
catapulted Eco’s fame has become the subject of various levels of study due to
the rich layers of meaning it has opened up to the reading public.
“You could read The Name of the Rose simply for the
solution to the murders. A more religious minded reader could read it strictly
for the discussions on God. Not to mention the countless academic
interpretations the novel allows. But perhaps such metatextuality, such endless
possibility brings as many negative results as it does positive ones.” (Rossmeier,
2005)
After his death in February 16,
2016 at 84, Umberto Eco’s name continued to retain its lustre as a foremost figure
in the noble fields he specialized in, not least in the novels that continue to
educate and entertain the readers and to mesmerize and confound the critics. The Name of the Rose, more than 30 years
after it was written and first translated, has entered into the literary canon
of masterfully written novels and has served as an example of postmodern
literature at its best. (cf. Gioia, n.d.)
