question_answer 9)

Did Umberto Eco consider himself a novelist first or an academic scholar?    

Answer:

Mukund said that Eco was a famous academician but he became even better renowned after the publication of The Name of the Rose. Although he had written only five novels, as against over 40 scholarly works of non-fiction, which included an influential piece of work on semiotics, yet he was better known as a novelist. Umberto Eco considered himself to be a university professor who wrote novels only on Sundays. He participated in academic conferences and identified with the academic community and not with the Pen Clubs and writers. However, he was aware that most people read novels. He could not expect everyone to be reading books on semiotics.