Abstract:Unlimited and bounded interpretations are two aspects of Umberto Eco's hermeneutics. The unlimited openness of interpretation is fully embodied in the Open Work, a famous academic monograph by Eco published in the 1960s. Eco has attached great importance to the appreciator and the reader, encouraging the active interpretation participation from the acceptor. However, inspired by the critical approach advocated by deconstructionist theorists, such as Derrida, Paul de Man and Hillis Miller, the right of the reader to interpret the text in practice has expanded gradually, resulting in unlimited interpretations to which Eco put forward a theory to impose a certain limit to textual interpretation in the late 1980s and the early 1990s in an attempt to keep balance between the author, the text and the reader.