In this collection of nine essays, Umberto Eco sets forth a dialectic between 'open' and 'closed' texts, between a work of art that actively involves the 'addressee' in its production and one that holds the 'addressee' at bay and seeks to evoke a limited and predetermined response. He investigates the contributions of contemporary semantics to the study of narrative, and connects the modalities of textual interpretation with the problem of possible worlds.

"...not merely interesting and novel, but also exceedingly provocative and heuristically fertile." -The Review of Metaphysics "...essential reading for anyone interesting in...the new reader-centered forms of criticism." -Library Journal In this erudite and imaginative book, Umberto Eco sets forth a dialectic between 'open' and 'closed' texts.