(9 November, 2016) Umberto eco was a great semiologist, philosopher and Italian writer as well as a narrator, editor, essayist, parodist and encyclopaedist. His passing in February 2016, represented an immense loss for Italian culture. Many inititaves have been launched in Italy and abroad in recent months, in order to remember this extraordinary intellectual. Malta is now also commemorating Umberto Eco with a study day that will link philosophy, semiotics and cinema and that will also see Professors Jean-Paul De Lucca, Clare Vassallo and Gloria Lauri-Lucente. The Italian Cultural Institute of Valletta wished to remember Eco by organising an event dedicated to him and his works. It will consist of a conference and the screening of the famous film “The Name of the Rose”. The seminar organised in collaboration with the Departments of philosophy, Translation and Interpretation and Italian Studies, will be held at the University of Malta on Thursday November 10 at 11:00 (Maths & Physics Building, Room 216, University of Malta, Msida Campus). In the first part of the seminar, Jean-Paul De Lucca will talk about the philosophical aspect of Umberto Eco’s life with a focus the notion of time in his works. Eco has reached a rare level of appreciation for his academic work. Ironically, his principal thought, that of Interpretive Semiotics is not very well known. He was able to connect this idea with literature thanks to his novels, among which is The Name of the Rose, which was very successful thanks to its translation into English and its adaption into film. Clare Vassalle will touch on this topic, who was also a student of Eco at the University of Bologna. She will talk about translations and semiotic aspects of his literary works. In the second part of the seminar, Gloria Lauri-Lucente will give a critical view before the screening of the film “The Name of the Rose”. (red)
