French Literature Reviews - 2026

U. Eco, The Infinity of Lists
Comparative and World Literature

Reviews published in the critical dossier of Acta Fabula "Aux listes et caetera" (May 2013, Vol. 14, no. 4): "Un certain art de la liste" by Christelle Reggiani and "Actualité de la liste" by Gaspard Turin.

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Umberto Eco, The Infinity of Lists

Paris: Flammarion, 2009.

408 p.

• EAN 9782081228849.
• Price: 39 €

Publisher's presentation:

Following Robert Badinter, Toni Morrison, Anselm Kiefer, and Pierre Boulez, Umberto Eco is the Louvre Museum's Guest of Honor in November 2009.

Accumulation, enumeration, litany, inventory, census, nomenclature, catalogue, collection, repertory... the history of literature and art is filled with collections of objects, signaling that it is impossible to say or represent everything, and that a new language must be invented to "write silences, nights, note the inexpressible, capture vertigo" (Rimbaud, "Alchimie du Verbe").

By bringing together all kinds of lists—chaotic, clumsy, disordered—Umberto Eco introduces us to a language with no immediate exit and no obvious purpose which nevertheless provides a vast sum of knowledge about the history of civilizations. Thus, in the Iliad, the catalogue of Trojan warriors, weapons, ships, their rigging, and the armies setting off for war provides a precise vision of Achaean society.

Original iconographic parallels with famous artists (Carpaccio, Uccello, Brueghel, Warhol...) and less frequently featured ones (Hendrick de Clerck, Pellizza da Volpedo, Stephan Lochner, Roman Opalka...) accompany a literary anthology of 75 texts (Dante, Whitman, Kipling, Calvino, Perec, Rimbaud...). The 21 chapters are introduced by essays from Umberto Eco.

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The practice of enumeration and cataloging has long occupied a central place in the history of literature and the visual arts, serving as both a stylistic device and a conceptual challenge. From classical epics to modern poetry, lists have allowed writers and artists to grapple with the sheer abundance of the world, often signaling the limits of representation and the desire to capture totality. Such enumerations appear across diverse cultural traditions and epochs, reflecting shifting intellectual frameworks regarding order, chaos, and the classification of knowledge within European culture.

Readers interested in the intersections of visual culture, literary history, and the philosophy of representation may find this publication relevant to their inquiries. The history of literature and art is filled with collections of objects, signaling that it is impossible to say or represent everything. The book features iconographic parallels with famous artists alongside a literary anthology of texts, organized across chapters introduced by essays from Umberto Eco.

An article on this book can be read on the BibliObs.com website: "Eco's Bric-a-Brac".