Umberto Eco's 'Vertige de la Liste' Explores the Poetics of Enumeration

Umberto Eco's project at the Louvre, comprising an exhibition and lecture series begun in November 2009, is encapsulated in his book 'Vertige de la Liste' published by Flammarion. The work investigates the concept of the list as a visual and literary form, seeking to define a 'visual et cetera' through the poetics of enumeration. Eco contrasts the finite world of Achilles' shield with Homer's endless catalogue of Greek ships in the Iliad, framing lists as a mode of representation for the infinite. The book's 21 chapters trace a chronological path from ancient poems to contemporary literature and painting, focusing on number, limits, and the logic of list composition. However, the study faces criticism: visual equivalents for textual lists often produce saturated, closed spaces rather than open infinities, and key distinctions remain underdeveloped. The book's structure, heavy with reproductions, sometimes leads to generalities. Eco's prophecy that the World Wide Web is the 'supreme mother of all lists'—an infinite, evolving labyrinth blurring truth and error—closes the volume. French press has praised Eco as a polymath, but the intellectual project suffers from a mix of erudition and lightness that can feel hollow.