The profane converted into sacred by the interdict

An analysis of The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco

Abstract

Throughout their work, Georges Bataille and Roger Caillois focused on the unbreakable connection between contrary terms such as interdiction and transgression, homogeneous and heterogeneous and profane and sacred worlds. It is in the last pair that this article will focus on, as it is its aim to analyze the ways in which profane places, objects and people are transformed in sacred entities in Umberto Eco´s novel The Name of the Rose, according to the theories of both French philosophers and the support of Giorgio Agamben. It is understood that such relations mention above, although they may appear to be opposites, are, in fact determined by the other, as neither of them can exist on its own.