On the shoulders of giants / Umberto Eco ; translated from the Italian by Alastair McEwen.
"On the Shoulders of Giants collects previously unpublished essays from the last fifteen years of Umberto Eco's life. With humor and erudition, one of the great contemporary thinkers takes on the roots of Western culture, the origin of language, the nature of beauty and ugliness, the imperfections of art, and the lure of mysteries"-- Provided by publisher.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780674240896
- ISBN: 0674240898
- Physical Description: 318 pages ; 22 cm
- Publisher: Cambridge, Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019.
- Copyright: ©2019
Content descriptions
General Note: | This book is a translation of Sulle Spalle dei Giganti (c)2017 La Nave di Teseo Editore, Milano, Italy. |
Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Formatted Contents Note: | On the shoulders of giants -- Beauty -- Ugliness -- The absolute and the relative -- Beautiful flame -- The invisible -- Paradoxes and aphorisms -- Untruths, lies, falsifications -- On some forms of imperfection in art -- Some revelations on secrecy -- Conspiracy -- Representations of the sacred. |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Art > Philosophy. Art > Themes, motives. Philosophy. Aesthetics. Aesthetics. Art > Philosophy. Art > Themes, motives. Philosophy. |
Show Only Available Copies
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Homer Public Library | 700.1 ECO (Text) | 000154103 | Nonfiction | Available | - |
On the Shoulders of Giants
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Summary
On the Shoulders of Giants
A posthumous collection of essays by one of our greatest contemporary thinkers that provides a towering vision of Western culture. In Umberto Eco's first novel, The Name of the Rose, Nicholas of Morimondo laments, "We no longer have the learning of the ancients, the age of giants is past!" To which the protagonist, William of Baskerville, replies: "We are dwarfs, but dwarfs who stand on the shoulders of those giants, and small though we are, we sometimes manage to see farther on the horizon than they." On the Shoulders of Giants is a collection of essays based on lectures Eco famously delivered at the Milanesiana Festival in Milan over the last fifteen years of his life. Previously unpublished, the essays explore themes he returned to again and again in his writing: the roots of Western culture and the origin of language, the nature of beauty and ugliness, the potency of conspiracies, the lure of mysteries, and the imperfections of art. Eco examines the dynamics of creativity and considers how every act of innovation occurs in conversation with a superior ancestor. In these playful, witty, and breathtakingly erudite essays, we encounter an intellectual who reads comic strips, reflects on Heraclitus, Dante, and Rimbaud, listens to Carla Bruni, and watches Casablanca while thinking about Proust. On the Shoulders of Giants reveals both the humor and the colossal knowledge of a contemporary giant.