Metalepsis Drifts: for a Figurative Reading of Conspiracy Narratives. The Example of Umberto Eco and the Conspiracy Machine

Abstract

Many experts on conspiracy theory reduce the phenomenon to its rational, cognitive dimension. 1Yet the aesthetic dimension and narrative pleasure are obvious in conspiracist discourse, whose rhetoric closely follows the codes of popular fiction. Have we not underestimated the quest to “please”? We postulate a continuity between audiences’ attitudes to fiction and to “conspiracy theories”, which have become relatively indistinguishable in the contemporary context of information overload. Umberto Eco’s work is particularly illuminating in this respect, as it focuses on the indistinguishability of the true and the plausible, and metalepsis as a transgression of the fictional pact. The reception of two of his major “conspiracy” novels, Foucault’s Pendulum and The Prague Cemetery, reveals an emancipation of the metaleptic trope: the novelist, although known for his anti-fascism, finds himself accused of complacency towards anti-Semitism.

Keywords

• trope
• metalepsis
• fiction
• Conspiracy narrative
• Umberto Eco