A joint seminar dedicated to Umberto Eco’s contribution to philosophy, semiotics and cinema by Dr Jean Paul De Lucca, Prof. Clare Vassallo and Prof. Gloria Lauri-Lucente.
The death of Umberto Eco, the influential Italian semiotician, cultural critic, philosopher, essayist, and novelist last February is an enormous loss for culture. The Italian Cultural Institute in Valletta wishes to commemorate Eco by organizing a day dedicated to his personality and his works. The seminar, organized in collaboration with the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Translation and Interpreting, and the Department of Italian, will take place at the University of Malta. The seminar will be divided into a morning and an afternoon session.
During the morning session, Dr Jean-Paul De Lucca will discuss the philosophical aspect of Umberto Eco’s works, in particular the notion of time. The theme of time is a key one in Eco’s works as it appears in some of the titles of his most important novels: L’isola del giorno prima, Cent’anni dopo, Sette anni di desiderio, Il pendolo di Foucault and A passo di gambero.
In the same session Prof. Clare Vassallo, who studied under the tutorship of Prof. Umberto Eco at the Università di Bologna, will discuss the Professor’s contribution to Semiotics. Eco’s main area of thought, Interpretative Semiotics, is not a very widely known discipline. Eco bridged the gap between literature and semiotics through the writing of his novels, The Name of the Rose being the best known among them due to its having been translated into English and then adapted to film. This talk will bring together Eco's insights on human interpretation based on the work of American Pragmatist philosopher, C.S. Pierce and on Medieval logic, with his fascination for the genre of investigative detective fiction, which culminated in his own fictional creation, The Name of the Rose.
In the same session Prof. Clare Vassallo, who studied under the tutorship of Prof. Umberto Eco at the Università di Bologna, will discuss the Professor’s contribution to Semiotics. Eco’s main area of thought, Interpretative Semiotics, is not a very widely known discipline. Eco bridged the gap between literature and semiotics through the writing of his novels, The Name of the Rose being the best known among them due to its having been translated into English and then adapted to film. This talk will bring together Eco's insights on human interpretation based on the work of American Pragmatist philosopher, C.S. Pierce and on Medieval logic, with his fascination for the genre of investigative detective fiction, which culminated in his own fictional creation, The Name of the Rose.
During the afternoon session, Prof. Gloria Lauri-Lucente will present the film adaption by Jean-Jacques Annaud of one of the most important novels by Umberto Eco The Name of the Rose. The presentation will be followed by the screening of the film.
Morning session: Thursday 10 November at 11:00 – Maths & Physics Building, Room 216, University of Malta, Msida Campus
Afternoon session: Thursday 10 November at 15:00 – Lecture Centre, Room 119, University of Malta, Msida Campus
For more info: www.iicvalletta.esteri.it