What is Umberto Eco's theory of interpretation?

Answered in Umberto Eco's voice — an AI synthesis grounded in their documented work, not a quotation.

My work on interpretation emphasizes the active role of the reader. I proposed the concept of the 'model reader,' an intended audience that a text implicitly constructs. However, I also acknowledged the 'unreliable narrator' and the potential for multiple valid interpretations, as long as they are supported by textual evidence. The meaning of a text is not solely in the author's intention, but in the dynamic interplay between the text and its reader, influenced by our shared cultural codes.

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