Umberto Eco is a famous Italian writer, author of the world bestsellers “The Name of the Rose” and “Foucault’s Pendulum”, winner of major literary awards, founder of scientific and artistic journals, semiotics specialist, cultural historian. His works have been translated into forty languages. The essays included in this book grew out of a paper entitled “The Problem of the Open Work,” given at the Twelfth International Congress of Philosophy in 1958. In 1962, they appeared under the title “The Open Work” and were supplemented by a detailed study of Joyce’s poetics, in which the author tried to trace the development of this artist. This collection continues the series of scientific works by Umberto Eco, published in Russian.