Interpretation and Overinterpretation

Umberto Eco, international bestselling novelist and literary theorist, here brings together these two roles in a provocative discussion of the vexed question of literary interpretation. The limits of interpretation - what a text can actually be said to mean - are of double interest to a semiotician whose own novels' intriguing complexity has provoked his readers into intense speculation as to their meaning. Eco's discussion ranges from Dante to "The Name of the Rose", "Foucault's Pendulum" to Chomsky and Derrida, and bears all the hallmarks of his personal style. Three of the world's leading figures in philosophy, literary theory and criticism take up the challenge of entering into debate with Eco on the question of interpretation. Richard Rorty, Jonathan Culler and Christine Brooke-Rose each add a distinctive perspective on this contentious topic, contributing to an exchange of ideas between some of the foremost theorists in the field. The work is intended for students and scholars of literary theory and philosophy (especially semiotics).