Apocalypse Postponed (Perspectives S.) - Softcover

Eco, Umberto

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0851704468 ISBN 13: 9780851704463

Publisher: BFI Publishing, 1994

Synopsis

This collection gathers Eco's main writings on mass culture published in a wide variety of journals and newspapers from the mid-50s to the late 1980s. Opening with an anti-Adornian survey of theories of mass culture, Eco goes on to explore such exotica as La Cicciolina, Charlie Brown, Orwell, Fellini, Italian independent radio and the "genius industry". Umberto Eco is a semiologist and medievalist, and is the author of "The Name of the Rose" and "Faith in Fakes".

About this title

From the Back Cover:

An erudite and witty collection of Umberto Eco's essays on mass culture from the 1960s through the 1980s, including major pieces which have not been translated into English before. The discussion is framed by opposing characterizations of current intellectuals as apocalyptic and opposed to all mass culture, or as integrated intellectuals, so much a part of mass culture as to be unaware of serving it. Organized in four main parts, "Mass Culture: Apocalypse Postponed", "Mass Media and the Limits of Communication", "The Rise and Fall of Counter-Cultures", and "In Search of Italian Genius", Eco looks at a variety of topics and cultural productions, including the world of Charlie Brown, distinctions between highbrow and lowbrow, the future of literacy, Chinese comic strips, whether countercultures exist, Fellini's Ginger and Fred, and the Italian genius industry.|An erudite and witty collection of Umberto Eco's essays on mass culture from the 1960s through the 1980s, including major pieces which have not been translated into English before. The discussion is framed by opposing characterizations of current intellectuals as apocalyptic and opposed to all mass culture, or as integrated intellectuals, so much a part of mass culture as to be unaware of serving it. Organized in four main parts, ""Mass Culture: Apocalypse Postponed,"" ""Mass Media and the Limits of Communication,"" ""The Rise and Fall of Counter-Cultures,"" and ""In Search of Italian Genius,"" Eco looks at a variety of topics and cultural productions, including the world of Charlie Brown, distinctions between highbrow and lowbrow, the future of literacy, Chinese comic strips, whether countercultures exist, Fellini's Ginger and Fred, and the Italian genius industry.

About the Author:

Umberto Eco was born in Alessandria in 1932 and has been Professor of Semiotics at the University of Bologna since 1975 and President of the International Centre for Semiotic and Cognitive Studies since 1988. His books include ‘The Name of the Rose’ (1980) and Foucault’s Pendulum’ (1988). His most recent works include ‘Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language’ (1984), ‘The Limits of Interpretation’ (1990), ‘Apocalyspe Postponed’ (1994) and ‘The Island of the Day Before’ (1995).

About this edition

• Publisher: BFI Publishing
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0851704468
• ISBN 13: 9780851704463
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240
• Editor: Lumley Robert