"I began writing in March of 1978, prodded by a seminal idea: I felt like poisoning a monk." This dark inspiration led Umberto Eco to begin his career as novelist at the somewhat tardy age of 46. Already established as one of the world's leading semioticians, a lecturer in constant demand, and a thin
According to Jacques Derrida, structure -- the structure of language, for example -- occupies an impossible and ideal position: it at once posits an absolute center that holds everything together and a meta-perspective that also holds everything together. For Derrida, then, structure is defined by a
PEN America and the Brown University Literary Arts Department are responsible for one of the most important and exciting literary fellowships currently running. The Brown University Literary Arts Department forged, with the aid of Thomas J. Watson Institute for International Studies and funding from