A Critical Discourse Analysis on the Novel The Name of the Rose from the Perspective of Foucauldian Relationship between Knowledge, Power, and Subjectivity

At first glance, although Umberto Eco’s novel The Name of the Rose seemingly depicts a murder in 14th-century medieval Italy, it whispers to its readers about the power held by the church, the conflicts between religious orders, philosophy, the dominant worldview of the era, knowledge production and dissemination, librarianship, and the dark Europe of the Middle Ages. In academic literature, The Name of the Rose has been extensively studied in terms of its literary techniques, symbols, and narrative structure. A review of the literature reveals studies to have focused on various aspects, including semiotic analyses, discussions on postmodern literary techniques and symbols, interrogations of scientific knowledge and reality, analyses of detective and murder plots, examinations of library science and librarianship, explorations of mass media and sociology of religion, and the integration of literary works with the history of science and philosophy. In contrast to the existing literature, this study employs a critical discourse analysis using the Foucauldian paradigm of knowledgepower-subject relations to scrutinize the character relationships, narrative structure, and other defining elements presented in Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. This study’s findings suggest the novel’s narrative construction of church authority to be aimed at maintaining its legitimacy by controlling the production and distribution of knowledge. As places where knowledge is preserved and disseminated, libraries in this context are portrayed differently from their contemporary understanding and are depicted as structures that store and protect books. Furthermore, Eco reconfigures the relationship among knowledge, power, and subject in the transition from a theocentric to an anthropocentric worldview, allegorically portraying the first steps of the Enlightenment era in his narrative. In conclusion, this study is envisioned to inspire future research endeavors by unveiling the intricate relationship among knowledge, power, and subject from a Foucauldian perspective through the lens of The Name of the Rose. While this study is confined to the analysis of The Name of the Rose, future investigations comparing how different literary works or artistic expressions address this relationship could offer deeper insights.