The fundamental tension in the novel is between those, like the inquisitor Bernardo Gui, Jorge de Burgos, Ubertino of Casale, or Adso in old age and that rare medieval-postmodern William who has abandoned his role of inquisitor, refusing to discriminate between martyr and heretic, for example. ... Discussing the "mannerist," or hierarchical, labyrinth that he constructs in his novel, Eco in his "Postscript" says the following about the far more complex understanding of space that William and the readers glimpse at the end of the story: An abstract model of conjecturality is the labyri...

• Word Count: 4697
• Approx Pages: 19
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate