The Openness of A Literary Work of Art: Analysis of an Umberto Eco’s Essay

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the essay A poética da obra aberta, present in Umberto Eco’s Obra Aberta. This text is part of the aesthetics of the reception, which takes on the reader's perspective and, as suggested by its designation, considers that it constitutes the guarantee of the historicity of literary works. In this sense, we try to illustrate, through the reconstitution of the arguments of the text allied to the study of reference works, the contributions of the aesthetics of the reception to the reflection on the history of literature. In the first part we explain the concept of "openness" and "ambiguity" of a literary work of art, within which it can refer to a multiplicity of meanings. We then reflect on the relationship between the work and the subject who aesthetically appreciated it, underlining the mechanisms of textual cooperation and the
reader's competencies. It was concluded that this essay of Eco establishes a new dialectic between the work and the interpreter, and openness can be defined as the condition of all aesthetic enjoyment, configuring multiple interpretive possibilities.