Reading the library : Umberto Eco's The name of the rose as postmodern library theory

Abstract

Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose comprises a useful platform, from which serious implications for LIS have been critically discussed. The novel, set in a library, where the murder weapon is a book, and the villain a librarian, comments on such theoretical concerns as the structure of the library (in Eco's novel the library's ordered organisation is symbolized in its structure as a labyrinth), the persona of the librarian (in the book Jorges de Burgos is a blind, covetous figure who acts out his tyranny in the suppression of knowledge by hiding and poisoning blasphemous books), and the nature of knowledge (Eco undenriines scientifically derived notions of truth, when he has his detective-figure foiled by misleading trails in what is ostensibly a scientific investigation). As a postmodern novel of a library, T)\e Name of the Rose offers us critical insights into a library critique, which is somewhat unconventional, yet thematically and theoretically significant to LIS. The purpose of this study is to discover the significance of Eco's critique of the library in Tlie Name of the Rose, and particularly its relevance to postmodern library theory. Such writers as Garrett (1991), Winter (1994), and Radford (1998), have identified the value of literary texts for LIS. Radford suggests that "the usefulness of considering the library experience from the perspective of literary criticism lies in its ability to provide an alternative perspective from which the rationalistic assumptions of a positivist epistemology can be fore grounded, transcended, and critiqued along with the conception of the library it supports." (617). Writers within LIS have also suggested the value in a reassessment of the theoretical assumptions inherent in library and information science. Budd suggests, "a systematic reassessment of the thinking dominating the profession is called for." (315). In view of these issues within library and information science, this study seeks to investigate the conditions of library theory and the themes that shape it by exploring the library critique in Eco's writing. This study will attempt to identify and explore the underlying themes that are present in Jlie Name of the Rose as postmodern criticism for LIS.