Umberto Eco's Theory of Signs and its Effect on Creativity and Reception | ||
| مجلة كلية الآداب - جامعة القاهرة | ||
| Volume 2021, Issue 4, April 2021 | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/jarts.2021.63981.1084 | ||
| Author | ||
| Ghada Muhammad Mahmoud Muhammad Al-Imam | ||
| Cairo University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Philosophy | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Umberto Eco (1932-2016) is an Italian philosopher, novelist, and literary critic. He was interested in describing literary texts, and artworks in general, as a connected texture of open signs; whether these signs are verbal or non-verbal. In turn, these signs do not only preserve the meaning, but also they are a form of its presence. Therefore, the aim of Eco was not to prove that the text has one and final meaning. In fact, his research concentrated on proving that the text has multi-meanings and is subject to all different interpretations. On the other hand, reading the open text would be a creative work in which the world created by the author is opened up to the reader. Furthermore, the reader can discover its several meanings. This is named by Eco as the "textual partnership" between the writer and the reader; accordingly, his thesis about the openness of the text, deeply and equally, influenced the concepts of creativity and reception. The study aims at discovering the effects of Eco's theory of signs on the two experiences of creativity and reception, and viewing these experiences as textual experiences, in addition to expressing how the novel is considered to be a style of biography. Moreover, the study discusses what distinguishes the creative writing from the philosophical writing, on one hand, and the scientific writing on the other. Therefore, this study attempts to answer the following questions: Is the text a world of signs that can be interpreted, or is it a meaningless world? In turn, is this meaning the same inherent meaning in the work or is it created by the interaction between the recipient and the artwork? In other words, is it the same intended meaning of the author of the work or is it created by the reader? And if the artwork is a world of signs, then what is the nature of the relation between signs and texts? To answer the previous questions, the study uses the critical analytical method that aims at analyzing the concepts and problems included in the research. The critical reading of the texts does not only express the ideas, but also tries to understand and analyze them, then assess them. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Key Words: Literary work; Text; intertextuality; aesthetics of reception; Creative writing; semiotics of openness - signs | ||
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