UMBERTO ECO

ULRICH GAIER

GILLES DELEUZE

MALCOM PASLEY

WALTER BENJAMIN

MAURICE BLANCHOT

LITERATURLISTE

...Nonetheless it is obvious that works like those of Berio and Stockhausen are 'open' in a far more tangible sense. In primitive terms we can say that they are quite literally 'unfinished' : the author seems to hand them on to the performer more or less like the components of a construction kit. He seems to be unconcerned about the manner of their eventual deployment.
A strong current in contemporary literature follows this use of symbol as a communicative channel for indefinite, open to constantly shifting responses and interpretive stances. It is easy to think of Kafkas´ work as 'open' : trial, castle, waiting passing sentence, sickness, metamorphosis and torture - none of these narrative situations are to be understood in their immediate literal sense. But unlike the constructions of medevial allegory ... in Kafka there is no matching paradigm in the cosmos to provide a key to the symbolism.

The work remains inexhaustible insofar at it is open, because in it an ordered world based on universally achnowleded laws is being replaced by a world based on ambiguity, both in the negative sense that directional centers are missing and also in a positive sense, because values and dogma are constantly being placed in question.

Eco, Umberto, "The poetics of the open work", in 20th Century Studies 12, 1974 , S. 6-26