Umberto Eco in 1982: “The “name of the rose” is an expression sometimes used in the Middle Ages to designate the infinite power of language.”
Interview How did a medieval scholar and sign theorist conceive one of the greatest literary successes of the 20th century? In this 1982 interview with "Le Nouvel Observateur," Umberto Eco, who died in 2016, recounted the birth of "The Name of the Rose," the medieval thriller released in 1980, which has since become a global bestseller, translated into 45 languages and selling tens of millions of copies.
Interview by Frédéric Ferney
Umberto Eco in the show “Apostrophes” on the occasion of the release of his book “The Name of the Rose”, in 1982. XAVIER GASSMANN/INA VIA AFP
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The Prix Médicis étranger was awarded to Umberto Eco for his novel "The Name of the Rose," a delightful Série noire that takes the reader to medieval Italy, to an abbey where crime, debauchery, and sodomy are the order of the day. He spoke with Frédéric Ferney. Jean-François Josselin received the Prix Médicis for "Hell and Co." After the Goncourt and the Renaudot, this is a second fine double for Grasset and its literary director, Yves Berger. On the same day, the Prix Femina fell to Canadian novelist Anne Hébert, published by Seuil.
You are a university professor known for your work on medieval aesthetics and Joyce's poetics. How does a theorist of the sign dare to take the leap: write a novel?Umberto Eco I never dreamed of doing it. I had a very dear friend: Roland Barthes. All his life, he regretted not being a writer, a true creator. In fact, he was; but he felt a lack, he suffered from it. Not me. I was a theorist…
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