Umberto Eco, The Da Vinci Code, and the Intellectual in the Age of Popular Culture

This book provides a philosophical overview of Umberto Eco's historical and cultural development as a unique, internationally recognized public intellectual who communicates his ideas to both an academic and a popular audience. It describes Eco's intellectual development from his childhood during World War II and student involvement as a Catholic youth activist and scholar of the Middle Ages, to his early writings on the &quote;openness&quote; of modern works such as Joyce's Finnegans Wake. Merrell also explores Eco's pioneering role in semiotics and his later career as a novelist.