Umberto Eco and the problem of iconism

This paper focuses on the main features and evolution of the so-called "debate on iconism," in which Eco was deeply involved. This discussion (one of the most important in general and visual semiotics) began at the end of the 1960s and dealt with the problem of reality and image perception. It was characterized by the contrast between the supporters of visual language "naturality" and those of its "conventionality." In La Struttura assente (1968) and Trattato di semiotica generale (1975, A Theory of Semiotics), Eco elaborated a moderate conventionalist theory. More than 20 years later, in Kant e l'ornitorinco (1997, Kant and the Platypus), he focused his attention on the link between reality and visual language. The article aims to understand what has really changed in Eco's theory and how far the reflections in Kant e l'ornitorinco were already implied in his first ideas. Besides, the article underlines the importance of perceptive modalities theory, Eco's most recent contribution to visual semiotics.