6 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
Roland Barthes's 1967 manifesto declaring that the author's biography and intentions are irrelevant to textual interpretation — meaning is produced by the reader in the act of reading, not by the author in the act of writing.
French literary theorist and semiotician who wrote Mythologies, S/Z, The Pleasure of the Text, and A Lover's Discourse — arguing that all cultural products are signs to be decoded ideologically (Mythologies), that texts are infinitely multiple (S/Z), and that Death of the Author separates the text from authorial intention.
Italian philosopher of semiotics and novelist who wrote The Name of the Rose — a medieval mystery that is simultaneously a semiotic treatise — and developed important theories of interpretation and meaning.
Novel by Umberto Eco published 1988. Three editors invent a grand conspiracy linking the Knights Templar to all secret societies, only to discover their game is taken seriously and turns lethal. A satirical yet encyclopedic treatment of occultism, Kabbalah, and the paranoid imagination.
Superman is the archetypal American superhero introduced by DC Comics in 1938, representing the ideal of selfless power used in service of justice. As a cultural concept, Superman embodies the fantasy of godlike capability constrained by moral commitment.
Russian Orthodox priest, theologian, mathematician, and polymath. Called the 'Russian Leonardo,' he unified theology, mathematics, art theory, and philosophy in a vision of concrete metaphysics. Executed by Stalin's regime in 1937.