Inferences and expectancies in Umberto Eco’s aesthetic theory Cover Image

L'attività inferenziale e le aspettative nel pensiero estetico di Umberto Eco
Inferences and expectancies in Umberto Eco’s aesthetic theory

Author(s): Piero Polidoro
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Theoretical Linguistics
Published by: Łódzkie Towarzystwo Naukowe
Keywords: Semiotics; Umberto Eco; Inference; Narration; Aesthetics

Summary/Abstract: Umberto Eco's aesthetic theory shows a great continuity and coherence through decades. Both in Opera aperta (a pre-semiotic work published in 1962) and in Lector in fabula, inferential activity is at the very center of aesthetic experience and of interpretation in general. The musicological theory by Leonard B. Meyer was one of Eco's inspiration sources; it suggested the importance of this inferential activity and of the tensions it generates in producing emotional reactions to textual stimuli. But tensions are not the only way inferential activity contribute to aesthetic experience; tendencies too have an important role in it.

  • Issue Year: 58/2015
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 63-74
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: Italian