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A review by iluxan
On Literature by Umberto Eco
4.0
"On Literature" opened my eyes to the horizons of literary criticism. (Caveat: I knew nothing about lit-crit then, and still know next to nothing about it now.)
Eco combines several essays - each focused on one book (most of which I still haven't read) and on a particularly striking aspect of this book.
Reading "On Literature", you are led into the dark and imposing forest of literature and suddenly realize that it's not as tangled and incomprehensible as you imagined.
One of the essays explores the power of space and movement in a narrative. I did not realize that a skilled writer can use the word almost as a movie camera - moving it in space, zooming in or zooming out, changing the angle and the way the situation is presented. It was rather eye-opening for me.
Another very memorable essay exposes the sleight of hand that another writer uses to seemlessly move the narrative back and forth through time in a story. A very trivial thing, but picking it apart and seeing how it's done was an amazing learning experience for me.
In case you can't tell, I heartily recommend this book to any lit-crit virgins.
Eco combines several essays - each focused on one book (most of which I still haven't read) and on a particularly striking aspect of this book.
Reading "On Literature", you are led into the dark and imposing forest of literature and suddenly realize that it's not as tangled and incomprehensible as you imagined.
One of the essays explores the power of space and movement in a narrative. I did not realize that a skilled writer can use the word almost as a movie camera - moving it in space, zooming in or zooming out, changing the angle and the way the situation is presented. It was rather eye-opening for me.
Another very memorable essay exposes the sleight of hand that another writer uses to seemlessly move the narrative back and forth through time in a story. A very trivial thing, but picking it apart and seeing how it's done was an amazing learning experience for me.
In case you can't tell, I heartily recommend this book to any lit-crit virgins.