Umberto Eco,

Umberto Eco, meninggal di kediamannya Jumat (19/2/2016). Banyak orang mengenal Eco dari karya yang monumental yakni buku The Name of The Rose yang pertama kali terbit 1980. Namun sebenarnya dia adalah sorang  Filsuf, penulis, ahli semiotika juga kritikus sastra. Ia sangat inspiratif karena selain menulis buku, ia tak segan-segan melibatkan diri dalam berbagai polemik.

Umberto Eco, lahir kota Alessandria di wilayah Piedmont (Italia utara) 5 Januari 1932. Nama keluarganya konon merupakan akronim dari ex caelis oblatus, bahasa Latin yang artinya hadiah dari langit. Sebelum dipanggil oleh pemerintah untuk berperang, ayahnya yang bernama Giulio Eco bekerja sebagai akuntan. 

Selama Perang Dunia II Umberto dan ibunya tinggal di desa kecil di lereng gunung Piedmont. Ayahnya menginginkan Umberto menjadi seorang pengacara, namun Umberto Eco lebih memilih jalur sastra  dan filsafat dengan masuk ke Universitas Turin. Dalam kuliahnya Eco memberi perhatian khusus terhadap filosof Thomas Aquinas.

Eco bekerja sebagai editor budaya untuk RAI (Radiotelevisione Italiana) dan mengajar di Universitas Turin (1956-1964). Pada 1958-1959 Eco bertugas di tentara dan pada era 1960-an dia mengajar di universitas di Milan dan Florence. Dari 1969 sampai 1971 dia mengajar di Politeknik Milan. Pada usia 39 tahun Eco diangkat menjadi profesor semiotika di Universitas Bologna.

Eco menikah dengan Renate Ramge, seorang guru seni asal Jerman September 1962 dan dikaruniai seorang putra dan seorang putri. Istrinya membantu menerjemahkan novel kedua Eco, Il Pendolo di Foucault ke dalam bahasa Jerman. Ia pernah mendapatkan dua penghargaan sastra utama Italia Premio Viareggio,  Premio Strega, Anghiari Prize (1981), Medicis Prize (1982), dan McLuhan Teleglobe Prize (1985).

Eco memiliki rumah di Milan dan Rimini dan telah menulis lebih dari 20 buku. Ia lebih senang menyebut dirinya filsuf. Dalam beberapa kesempatan,Eco mengaku demikian. "Saya seorang filsuf. Saya menulis novel hanya saat akhir pekan," kata dia.

Eco juga merupakan ahli semiotika yang fokus terhadap tanda dan simbol. Sebagai penulis yang sangat produktif  eco menulis esai, artikel surat kabar, teks akademis dan bahkan buku anak-anak dan kritik sastra. Eco adalah seorang kritikus vokal dari mantan Perdana Menteri Italia Silvio Berlusconi.

Eco merupakan pendiri Departemen Komunikasi di Universitas San Marino pada 1980-an. Saat ini, Eco merupakan profesor emeritus dan bekas pimpinan Higher School of Humanities di Universitas Bologna.

Dia pernah menulis bahwa "buku selalu berbicara tentang buku lain, dan setiap kisah mengisahkan cerita yang sudah pernah disampaikan".

Karya

Novels

• Il nome della rosa (1980; English translation: The Name of the Rose, 1983)
• Il pendolo di Foucault (1988; English translation: Foucault's Pendulum, 1989)
• L'isola del giorno prima (1994; English translation: The Island of the Day Before, 1995)
• Baudolino (2000; English translation: Baudolino, 2001)
• La misteriosa fiamma della regina Loana (2004; English translation: The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, 2005)
• Il cimitero di Praga (2010; English translation: The Prague Cemetery, 2011)
• Numero zero (2015; English translation: Numero Zero, 2015)

Non-fiction books

• La ricerca della lingua perfetta nella cultura europea, 1993(en)
• Il problema estetico in San Tommaso (1956 – English translation: The Aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas, 1988, revised)
• "Sviluppo dell'estetica medievale", in Momenti e problemi di storia dell'estetica (1959 – Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages, 1985)
• Opera aperta (1962, rev. 1976 – English translation: The Open Work (1989)
• Diario Minimo (1963 – English translation: Misreadings, 1993)
• Apocalittici e integrati (1964 – Partial English translation:Apocalypse Postponed, 1994)
• Le poetiche di Joyce (1965 – English translations: The Middle Ages of James Joyce, The Aesthetics of Chaosmos, 1989)
• La Struttura Assente (1968 – The Absent Structure)
• Il costume di casa (1973 – English translation: Faith in Fakes: Travels in Hyperreality, 1986)
• Trattato di semiotica generale (1975 – English translation: A Theory of Semiotics, 1976)
• Il Superuomo di massa (1976)
• Dalla periferia dell'impero (1977)
• Lector in fabula (1979)
• A semiotic Landscape. Panorama sémiotique. Proceedings of the Ist Congress of the International Association for Semiotic Studies, Den Haag, Paris, New York: Mouton (=Approaches to Semiotics, 29) (with Seymour Chatman and Jean-Marie Klinkenberg).
• The Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts(1979 – English edition containing essays from Opera aperta,Apocalittici e integrati, Forme del contenuto (1971), Il Superuomo di massa, Lector in Fabula).
• Sette anni di desiderio (1983)
• Postille al nome della rosa (1983 – English translation:Postscript to The Name of the Rose, 1984)
• Semiotica e filosofia del linguaggio (1984 – English translation:Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language, 1984)
• De Bibliotheca (1986 – in Italian and French)
• Lo strano caso della Hanau 1609 (1989 – French translation:L'Enigme de l'Hanau 1609, 1990)
• I limiti dell'interpretazione (1990 – The Limits of Interpretation, 1990)
• Interpretation and Overinterpretation (1992 – with R. Rorty, J. Culler, C. Brooke-Rose; edited by S. Collini)
• La ricerca della lingua perfetta nella cultura europea (1993 – English translation: The Search for the Perfect Language (The Making of Europe), 1995)
• Six Walks in the Fictional Woods (1994)
• Incontro – Encounter – Rencontre (1996 – in Italian, English, French)
• In cosa crede chi non crede? (with Carlo Maria Martini), 1996 – English translation: Belief or Nonbelief?: A Dialogue, 2000)
• Cinque scritti morali (1997 – English translation: Five Moral Pieces, 2001)
• Kant e l'ornitorinco (1997 – English translation: Kant and the Platypus: Essays on Language and Cognition, 1999)
• Serendipities: Language and Lunacy (1998)
• How to Travel with a Salmon & Other Essays (1998 – Partial English translation of Il secondo diario minimo, 1994)
• La bustina di Minerva (1999)
• Experiences in Translation, University of Toronto Press (2000)
• Sulla letteratura, (2003 – English translation by Martin McLaughlin: On Literature, 2004)
• Mouse or Rat?: Translation as negotiation (2003
• Storia della bellezza (2004, co-edited with Girolamo de Michele – English translation: History of Beauty/On Beauty, 2004)
• A passo di gambero. Guerre calde e populismo mediatico(Bompiani, 2006 – English translation: Turning Back the Clock: Hot Wars and Media Populism, 2007, Alastair McEwen)
• Storia della bruttezza (Bompiani, 2007 – English translation: On Ugliness, 2007)
• Dall'albero al labirinto: studi storici sul segno e l'interpretazione(Bompiani, 2007 – English translation: "From the Tree to the Labyrinth: Historical Studies on the Sign and Interpretation", 2014, Anthony Oldcorn)
• La Vertigine della Lista (Rizzoli, 2009) – English translation: The Infinity of Lists
• Costruire il nemico e altri scritti occasionali (Bompiani, 2011) – English translation by Richard Dixon: Inventing the Enemy(2012)
• Storia delle terre e dei luoghi leggendari (Bompiani, 2013) – English translation by Alastair McEwen: The Book of Legendary Lands (2013)
• Anthologies
• Eco, Umberto; Sebeok, Thomas A., eds. (1984), The Sign of Three: Dupin, Holmes, Peirce, Bloomington, IN: History Workshop, Indiana University Press, ISBN 978-0-253-35235-4
• Ten essays on methods of abductive inference in Poe's Dupin,Doyle's Holmes, Peirce and many others, 236 pages.

Books for children

• (Art by Eugenio Carmi)
• La bomba e il generale (1966, Rev. 1988 – English translation:The Bomb and the General Harcourt Children's Books (J); 1st edition (February 1989) ISBN 978-0152097004)
• I tre cosmonauti (1966 – English translation: The Three Astronauts Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd; First edition (3 April 1989) ISBN 978-0436140945)
• Gli gnomi di Gnu (1992 – English translation: The Gnomes of Gnu Bompiani; 1. ed edition (1992) ISBN 978-8845218859)
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