Young Eco's library: mass culture and interpretive freedom in the Fascist period
dc.contributor.advisor
Messina, Davide
dc.contributor.advisor
Pedriali, Federica
dc.contributor.author
Ruggieri, Marco
dc.date.accessioned
2023-03-15T17:27:29Z
dc.date.available
2023-03-15T17:27:29Z
dc.date.issued
2023-07-12
dc.description.abstract
This thesis carries out an in-depth study of Umberto Eco’s novel The Mysterious Flame of
Queen Loana (2004) and highlights its contribution to two fundamental yet inadequately
explored aspects of Eco’s oeuvre: its links with the research field of Cultural Studies, and the
role of subjectivity and individuality within his semiotic theory of the encyclopedia.
To this end, this thesis begins by studying Eco’s semiotic theory and identifies the gaps that
The Mysterious Flame contributes to filling. Subsequently, it focuses on how Eco used his
semiotic theory to analyse mass culture. Eco’s studies on mass culture will be read against the
work of Antonio Gramsci, widely considered the forerunner of Cultural Studies, and research
carried out by the scholars of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies,
Stuart Hall above all.
On these grounds, the second and third chapters of this thesis focus on The Mysterious
Flame. The second chapter interrogates The Mysterious Flame’s representation of the late
fascist period in Italy, one that Eco experienced first-hand in his childhood but never studied
comprehensively. As this thesis demonstrates, Eco’s novel makes an original contribution to
the ongoing debate on fascism, especially regarding the impact that the dictatorship and the
war had on Italian public memory, and thus on Italian national identity. After considering the
complex links between theory and narrative in Eco’s work, the third chapter emphasises how
The Mysterious Flame translates into the realm of narrative the crucial and unresolved question
of subjectivity in Eco’s semiotic theory, as well as the consequent problem of the relationship
between individual and cultural memory.
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dc.identifier.uri
https://hdl.handle.net/1842/40418
dc.identifier.uri
http://dx.doi.org/10.7488/era/3186
dc.language.iso
en
en
dc.publisher
The University of Edinburgh
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dc.relation.hasversion
Ruggieri, Marco (2021). “Eco and Gramsci: Unexplored Connections in Cultural Studies”. Italian Studies, 76 (4): 421-435.
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dc.relation.references
Umberto Eco, 'The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana', (2004)
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dc.rights.embargodate
2028-07-12
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dc.subject
Umberto Eco
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dc.subject
cultural theory
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dc.subject
Italian fascist regime
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dc.title
Young Eco's library: mass culture and interpretive freedom in the Fascist period
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dc.type
Thesis or Dissertation
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dc.type.qualificationlevel
Doctoral
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dc.type.qualificationname
PhD Doctor of Philosophy
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dcterms.accessRights
Restricted Access
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