You are invited to join us on 26 June 2026 at the Anthony Burgess Foundation in Manchester for a special public event, exploring the relationship between Umberto Eco and British culture.

A novelist, semiotician, philosopher, and cultural critic, Umberto Eco (1932-2016) was one of the most influential intellectuals of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. He is best known for the international bestseller The Name of the Rose and for essays such as Travels in Hyperreality and Ur-Fascism.

Semiotics, conspiracies, fake news, popular culture, and medieval murders: these are only some of the key words that can shed light on Eco’s fiction and non-fiction, which achieved global resonance across fields and borders.

Eco’s work enters into dialogue with world-wide intellectuals and writers such as Anthony Burgess, Italo Calvino, Jacques Lacan, and Susan Sontag. The year 2026 marks the tenth anniversary of his death. Several initiatives, conferences, and publications will celebrate and critically discuss his legacy during this year.

Our event in Manchester will explore how Eco interacted with British literature, thought, media, and intellectual traditions. More broadly, it will focus on the special relation Eco entertained with Britain and British culture.

The keynote address will be delivered by a world-renowned expert in translation studies and literature, Susan Bassnett, Emeritus Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Warwick and Honorary Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow.

Additional speakers and contributions will be confirmed nearer the date.

The event is FREE and open to all. Reserve your place here.

If you are interested in taking part in this event, please register via Eventbrite.

Whether you have reading Eco for a while, or are completely new to his work; whether you are passionate about cross-cultural connections between Italy and the UK, or simply interested in one of the numerous fields he worked on — fiction, semiotics, philosophy, cultural studies — you are warmly invited to attend this stimulating discussion.

15:00 — Welcome and opening session (Dr Andrea Brondino)
17:00 — Keynote lecture by Professor Susan Bassnett followed by Q&A
18:30 — Refreshments and closing remarks

A collaboration between the Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies at the University of Manchester and the International Anthony Burgess Foundation.