This book brings together some of the most distinguished figures currently at work in philosophy, literary theory and criticism to debate the limits of interpretation.

Umberto Eco, international best-selling novelist and leading literary theorist, here brings together these two roles in a provocative discussion of the vexed question of literary interpretation. Eco's illuminating and frequently hilarious discussion ranges from Dante to Chomsky and Derrida, and bears all the hallmarks of his inimitable personal style.