First an admission: semiotics is one of those subjects I have to bootstrap my way into each time I try to read a book about it, then it all quickly goes out of my mind. I guess I should look for Semiotics for Dummies.
This book was a challenge to read, but worth it for the insights. Enjoyed his discussion of kitsch, and I found interesting his view that the production of a work is part of the work of art, as is the varied reception that the work receives after it is circulated (exhibited, published, etc.). Glad I stuck with it. ( )

Enfoque revolucionário e atual dos problemas da estética, da teoria da informação, da linguagem, é este livro uma leitura obrigatória para todo aquele que de algum modo se ocupa do teatro, da literatura, da critica, da publicidade, do industrial design e das artes plásticas

I can measure the time that I've been a fan of Umberto Eco in decades. I believe I own most all of his books. But I'd not yet read The Open Work, perhaps because I thought I knew what it was about--that the meaning of a text is in large part in the mind of the reader. "Every work of art, even though it is produced by following an explicit or implicit poetics of necessity, is effectively open to a virtually unlimited range of possible readings, each of which causes the work to acquire new vitality in terms of one particular taste, or perspective, or personal performance (21; italics as in text). Later, in both Interpretation and overinterpretation and The Limits of Interpretation, Eco realized that there are limits to that unlimited range of possible meanings. Stanley Fish can be said to have struck a definitive, logical middle ground with his Is There A Text In This Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities.

This is not easy reading, but highly recommended for those interested in the development of 20th century literary criticism. ( )

Librería 5. Estante 4.