“’The subject is in the adverbs’. The role of the subject in Eco’s semiotics"

In this essay it is investigated the role that subjectivity plays in Eco’s theoretical works, through a close rereading and reinterpreting of this body of work. Although subjectivity seems to have a minor role in Eco’s semiotic theory, the paper shows how and why it is a central notion in it. In particular, the paper argues that the subject is a diffuse configuration, neither circumscribed nor circumscribable. It is not reducible to a single instance determined once and for all, nor to any other predetermined semiotic entity as was the code. It is not static but dynamic, and linked to practices of construction and transformation of meaning. But since these practices are historical and integrated into the practices and the work of mankind, subjectivity is also a product of history and is materially based.