il Nome nel testo

The name of shame: Mrs. Chominowa

Alessandro Amenta — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This paper aims to illustrate the evolution of the name ‘Chominowa’ within Polish collective consciousness. Initially mentioned in a poem by Zuzanna Ginczanka as the woman who reported the poetess to the Nazi police in 1942, this name gradually came to symbolize all Poles who collaborated with the German occupiers. Its evolution into an antonomasia reached its zenith in 2020 with the unveiling of Adam Rzepecki’s art installation – a yellow neon composition featuring the name ‘Chominowa.’ The controversies surrounding this installation can be attributed to the tabooization of Polish collective memory, which often glosses over the darker aspects of history such as collaborationism, in an attempt to portray a purified national identity free from culpability.

'Epic' memories in the history of Italy

Marina Castiglione — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

At the intersection of Roman annals, 14th-century chronicles, epic-chivalric ballads, romantic novels, and ‘black articles’, Antonio Russello, born in Favara (1921 - Castelfranco Veneto 2001), penned a narrative between 1979 and 1980 that unravels Italy’s history in reverse. It begins with the assassination of Aldo Moro and culminates in the Ides of March, marking Caesar’s demise and the Republic’s shift towards an Empire. Titled Lo Sfascismo, this pamphlet invokes pivotal historical moments where, in its pursuit of a strong leader, Italy ‘falls apart’ repeatedly. Each epoch resonates with names, locales, and texts wherein the hero of the hour (exalted through a distinctively tailored onomastic formula: Moraldo (from Aldo Moro), Zaccagninbenito, Cavourbensocamillo, Emmanuelvittorio, Cesaregiulio, etc.), meets his downfall. It’s a pathway that unwinds the thread in reverse, with each summoned name serving as a conduit for intertextuality.

Proust in Bavaria

Ludovica De Angelis, Ludovico Monaci — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

It is widely acknowledged that names play a foundational role in Proustian narratives. Characters’ personalities and histories are intricately woven through their names, which serve as pivotal elements in the unfolding of the tale. In the context of noble titles, names take on toponymic characteristics, not only tracing the protagonists’ personal histories but also the places they traverse within the narrative. By focusing on the occurrences of ‘Bavière’ in this paper, we aim to illustrate textual and avant-textual passages that reveal the evolution of the noble titles of characters. We explore this evolution through an endogenetic and exogenetic lens, examining both the author’s historical and contemporary references.

The erased names

Anna Ferrari — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Despite its form, the term damnatio memoriae was never explicitly utilized in antiquity. It is invoked in relation to the Roman world to denote a series of intricate attacks on the memory of vanquished adversaries. This encompasses various public and political actions such as the obliteration of statues and monuments, as well as the effacing of inscriptions. Numerous literary instances, however, indicate that it served not merely as a means of annulment and oblivion, but as a tool for vilifying an enemy, ensuring they were remembered in the most negative light possible. In such a process, the individual’s name becomes deeply entwined.

The tear in "The Silk Heart"

Giulia Guzzo — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The paper delves into the realm of onomastics within the context of migration by analyzing Shi Yang Shi’s autobiographical novel, Cuore di Seta. Through the protagonist’s journey from China to Italy, the narrative unveils the profound significance of names in the process of identity reconstruction, as experienced through memory. The Chinese onomastic system is carefully elucidated for readers, providing insight into its cultural nuances. Throughout the story, the evolution of the protagonist is mirrored in the evolution of his nicknames, which reflect both personal growth and societal challenges encountered along the way. As the protagonist grapples with conflicts between Confucian traditions and his dual identity as a Chinese migrant in Italy, the narrative chronicles his quest for self-discovery. Ultimately, he embraces his plural nature by employing the act of renaming as a symbolic gesture of acceptance and integration.

The ways of "Dar Es Salam"

Marie A. Rieger — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In daily life, street names primarily serve as navigational aids within urban environments. When examining their significance, they can either be descriptive or grouped thematically. Of particular interest in onomastic studies are commemorative street names, which, in essence, aim to evoke people, places, or events deemed significant to society. Beyond their semiotics, hodonyms can also feature prominently in literary works, either serving as a mere backdrop for the plot’s location or actively shaping it. This is exemplified in two novels: The Night of Dar es Salaam (2014) by German author Hermann Schulz and The Book of Secrets (1994) by Indian-Tanzanian-Canadian author M. G. Vassanji. Both novels are set in colonial Dar es Salaam, and a comparative analysis reveals distinct uses of street names. In Schulz’s novel, street names reinforce the protagonist’s sense of disorientation, elevating the stops along the way as narrative focal points. These stops serve to create a narrative space for the central events. Conversely, in Vassanji’s novel, street names establish a specific living environment where characters, firmly rooted in Dar es Salaam’s historical and socio-cultural reality, navigate their lives

A holed life

Luigi Sasso — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The exploration of the interplay between names and memory can unveil the latter as a complex entity, marked by various movements, each possessing distinct characteristics and trajectories (representing different forms of memory, thereby exhibiting both clear pathways and, at times, intricate networks). Simultaneously, it can shed light on the less predictable facets of how names function within literary works. As such, three potential connections between names and memory have been proposed: the name as obsession, as testimony, and as a fragment of life. These connections are scrutinized within the writings of three distinct authors (Emily Brontë, W.G. Sebald and Albert Camus), who hail from equally diverse historical and cultural backgrounds. Importantly, these identified categories are not mutually exclusive; rather, they collectively delineate the contours of a plausible path forward.

Onomastics and translation

Adriano Cerri — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The translation of proper names (PN) in literary works presents significant theoretical and practical challenges for researchers. This article presents a case study focusing on the comparative analysis of 13 different translations of the Lithuanian national poem Metai (‘The Seasons’) by Kristijonas Donelaitis, a seminal text in 18th-century Lithuanian literature that profoundly influenced the development of the literary language. The poem is notable for its extensive use of proper names. In this paper, a typology of PNs is proposed for translation analysis, categorized based on parameters such as authorship, intentionality, transparency of the PN in the source language, and the potential presence of equivalents in the target language. The findings indicate that translators’ choices, while diverse, are influenced by the type of PN being translated. The efficacy of this analytical model could be further tested by applying it to translations of other literary works in the future.

Toponyms in retranslation

Eleonora Fois — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The fact that Tolkien’s stories were primarily linguistically inspired is evidenced not only by his meticulous attention to anthroponyms and toponyms to ensure they fully described characters or places, but also by the musicality and connection between sound and the named object. The toponyms in The Lord of the Rings create a political and geographical world: the locations in the novel, reprised and quoted in the various languages of the peoples of Middle Earth, refer to a shared history and make the fictional world more vivid and real. For Tolkien, anthroponyms and toponyms were so crucial to the correct experience of his universe that he devised a guide for translators. Given its status as a literary classic, The Lord of the Rings has undergone numerous retranslations. This contribution aims to investigate the retranslation of place names by examining the two Italian versions: the first by Vittoria Alliata and Quirino Principe, published in 1970; the second by Ottavio Fatica, published between 2019 and 2022. The contrastive analysis of this contribution aims to: 1) explore the different interpretation introduced by the retranslated toponyms; and 2) understand how toponyms reflect the translation strategies of the two translations.

The translation of antroponyms in the Italian version of "Pan Tadeusz" by Adam Mickiewicz

Dario Prola — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This paper focuses on translating the anthroponymic repertoire of Adam Mickiewicz’s Polish national epic, Pan Tadeusz. The research examines how proper names and nicknames serve as essential lexical elements, fulfilling various functions such as character delineation and the transmission of identity and cultural values. The objective is to spotlight the strategies employed in translating these anthroponyms, illustrating how they influence the perception of Mickiewicz’s poem in Italy and reflect broader trends in onomastic translation within the contemporary Italian literary landscape.

From Bombay to Paris and Rome via London

Jean-Louis Vaxelaire — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The untranslatability of proper names is a defining criterion for some researchers (Manczak, Kleiber, etc.). This idea has been criticized in other works, especially in translation studies, where it is an evidence that proper names can be modified under certain circumstances. By modification, I mean translations in the strict sense, but also supplementation or explaining by means of a footnote. My corpus will be composed of 'post-colonial' novels, written in English and translated into French and Italian. I would emphasise the cultural role that proper names play in these novels, whether they are brand names that situate the characters or historical issues.

Regarding names

Stefano Bartezzaghi — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

When discussing proper names, the traditional focus has predominantly centered on their meaning, while the composition of these names has received less attention. Initially, we can identify two perspectives. Firstly, the materiality of a proper name aligns with that of other linguistic forms, all of which can ascend to or descend from the onomastic function through the services of antonomasia. However, in specific contexts, the material aspect of a name can assume unusual significance. This includes considerations of objects: the arrangement of phonemes and sounds, their articulation, and auditory reception; the arrangement of graphemes and visual traits across diverse mediums (such as fabrics, bark, painting canvases, or urban scaffolding), encompassing various stylistic, typographic, and calligraphic executions, influencing both execution and visual perception. Moreover, phenomena encompass the reinterpretation of such data into new graphic, auditory, and linguistic forms, characterized by novel configurations, resemantizations, transformations, and substitutions. This occurs through techniques like interpretatio nominis, anagrammatics, rebussistics, cryptography, and pseudonyms. Centuries-old traditions initially reignited interest in the materiality of names, predating the contexts where this phenomenon gained new relevance. These include the 20th-century advent of branding (names as trademarks) and the significance of chirographic signatures in the digital age. The resurgence of inked materiality within names appears to signal a necessity, even legally, for establishing new connections between text and the body, resembling a sort of biosemiotics of the text.

On the spelling of the prosoponymes in French

Yves Baudelle — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In French, the transcription of proper names is sufficiently complex to contribute to the expressiveness of character names. This article examines the axiological uses of the orthographic subtleties of onomastics in realist novels (1830-1950). It analyzes in particular the prestigious coloring of the s and y in the works of Balzac and Proust. Finally, he points out that these grapheme connotations can still be observed in contemporary novels, where they are nevertheless tinged with a touch of irony.

Odonyms and toponyms in "Trilogia napoletana" by Carlo Bernari

Paola Cantoni — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The place name Speranzella in Carlo Bernari’s novel signifies the author’s penchant for evocative and symbolic titles, a trend also observed in his other works within the ‘Trilogia napoletana’. These titles encapsulate Bernari’s portrayal of Naples as the ‘paese delle anime’ (the land of souls) rather than just ‘dell’anima’ (of the soul), thus emphasizing its significance to all inhabitants. Through an exploration of unpublished letters between Bernari and his publisher Vallecchi, discussions regarding the choice of the novel’s cover are examined, shedding light on the significance of the repeated mention and personification of ‘Speranzella’ within the narrative. Furthermore, the novel Vesuvio e Pane is also analyzed to understand the dual realistic and metaphorical functions of place names in Bernari’s literary oeuvre.

Onomastic ambiguity in Medieval prophecies

Pietro Colletta — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In the chronicles penned by Saba Malaspina, Bartolomeo di Neocastro, and Nicolò Speciale, detailing the events unfolding in the Kingdom of Sicily following the Vespers rebellion of 1282, three prophecies emerge. These prophecies revolve around the demise of Frederick II of Swabia ‘sub flore’, that of his son Manfred ‘sub Petra Roseti’, and the eventual conquest of Sicily by Robert of Anjou. A thorough analysis of these prophecies uncovers a shared mechanism, rooted in an ambiguous onomastic indication, which renders them inherently deceptive. This onomastic data thus assumes a pivotal role within the narrative, serving as an indispensable key for interpretation.

Cosmonyms

Samuele Fioravanti — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This paper delves into the interplay among naming, Deep Time, and Deep Space (i.e., spacetime on a cosmogeological scale and from an evolutionary perspective) in the latest compositions by Italian poets Bruno Galluccio, Antonella Anedda, Andrea De Alberti, Lorenzo Vilei, Luigi Severi, and Franco Buffoni. I will examine the various strategies employed to evoke the incomprehensible depths of space-time within poetic texts: firstly, the theme of surrendering to the unnameable (explored by Anedda and Galluccio), followed by the anthropomorphization of evolutionary processes through the use of proper names like Lucy and Luca (as seen in De Alberti and Vilei’s works). By comparing these compositions with other contemporary poetry collections, I will identify a recurring pattern, discernible in De Alberti, Anedda, Galluccio, and Enrico Testa’s works (all published by Einaudi), characterized by alliterations and the compression of the macroscopic into the microscopic, accentuated by vast differences in scale. Lastly, I will highlight a distinct approach: the personification of celestial bodies and their names (referred to here as cosmonyms) by Buffoni and Severi.

Street names in German literature: The beginnings

Volker Kohlheim — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

While street names have been present in major German cities since the High Middle Ages, they did not find their way into German narrative literature until the late 17th century. In Christian Reuter’s picaresque novel Schelmuffsky (1696) familiar Hamburg street names are utilized to authenticate the protagonist’s extraordinary adventures. Similarly, E.T.A. Hoffmann initiates his fantastical tales against the backdrop of real streets in Berlin, Dresden, or Frankfurt, establishing a template for much of fantastical literature. However, he also pioneers a novel usage of real street names to denote socio-economic status among his characters. The introduction of invented street names into literary discourse occurred relatively late. These names, imbued with semantic or phonosymbolic significance, offer nuanced insights into the inhabitants’ socio-economic backgrounds.

Phonosymbolic literary names and nicknames

Andrea Riga — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The paper aims to delve into a relatively uncharted territory within scholarly inquiry: the realm of sound-symbolic literary onomastics. It meticulously scrutinizes 100 names and nicknames spanning from the 18th to the 21st century across diverse textual genres, with a specific focus on those found in children’s language or texts, as well as dialect varieties. The objective is to establish a classification system for the names and nicknames of literary characters, facilitating the identification of their motivational factors, formation mechanisms, and predominant linguistic structures employed.

Titles in search of a text

Leonardo Terrusi — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The essay delves into the mechanisms and functions of a specific category of titles, those assigned to non-existent works (pseudobiblia) or to texts that were only planned but never actualized. These titles exhibit a markedly different and more intricate functionality beyond mere reference. The examples under scrutiny span various eras and contexts, ranging from Doni to Leonardo Sciascia, from an Italian translation of a novel by Philip Dick to Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, all against the backdrop of Borges’s model.

Concealment and irony in the shadow of the Mole

Silvia Corino Rovano — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In the Turin of the late seventies, Fruttero and Lucentini depicted a city shrouded in darkness, a winter metropolis where snow seemed to blur the lines between the old, conservative, and esteemed Savoy capital and the burgeoning industrial hub of the economic boom. Through the critical and disillusioned lens of these two inherently Turin authors (one by birth, the other by adoption), a rich tapestry of names and places emerged, blending reality with invention to either obscure or highlight, with an unexpected touch of irony, the cityscape and its inhabitants. The murder of a priest in a church is juxtaposed with elements of genuine comedy, particularly in their clever manipulation of proper names.

A name and its opposite

Stefano Genetti — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In his novel Les Larmes (2016), Quignard delves into the origins of his art by invoking the Oaths of Strasbourg, as recorded in Nithard’s 9th-century chronicle, and the Sequence of Saint Eulalia, considered the birth certificates of the French language and literature, respectively. Within a narrative that blends history and fiction, where names mirror the transition from Latin to Old French and the latter’s intersections with Old German, the onomastic anagram formed by Nithard’s own name and Hartnid, the name of his brother, whom he barely mentions, appears not only to encapsulate recurring themes in the novel and unveil various aspects of Quignard’s poetics but also to encode the author’s signature within the text through his writing itself.

Onomastic fantasies in the Sciascia-Laterza correspondence

Antonio Iurilli — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Among the various relationships Leonardo Sciascia cultivated with Italian publishers, his connection with the Laterza publishing house in Bari stands out, notably due to its association with the publication of his initial venture into prose writing: Le parrocchie di Regalpetra. Drawing from this relationship, which has been recently documented through the publication of correspondence between Vito Laterza and Sciascia, my paper delves into the meticulous exchange between author and publisher. Specifically, it focuses on the editorial evolution of the work, examining various paratextual elements, ranging from the toponym chosen to signify the title, to the alignment of the title with the cover’s iconography, and the overall layout of the mise en page.

Female geography

Angela Daiana Langone, Cristina Solimando — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This study aims to explore the portrayal of the female dimension by analyzing the utilization of names in literary and toponymic settings. Specifically, the adoption of pseudonyms in genre literature serves as a means of empowerment, allowing female writers to creatively assert their existence beyond the constraints of censorship. Likewise, female toponyms, frequently associated with natural landscapes like valleys, caves, or pathways, convey a sense of marginalization that appears to diminish within the realm of devotion, particularly with the presence of sanctuaries dedicated to women saints.

The importance of being called Giovanni

Giorgio Masi — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Giovanni Della Casa’s blame poem Sopra ’l nome suo (‘About his Name’), Grazzini’s response with In lode di Giovanni (‘In Praise of Giovanni’), and Doni’s Cicalamento ultimo (‘The Last Chattering’) of the Zucca (‘Pumpkin’, in prose) all center on the name Giovanni. Despite the scant prevalence of onomastics among various burlesque themes, the emergence of three texts dedicated entirely to the same name within a short span is notable. Firstly, it’s essential to clarify the significance of the phrase essere Giovanni (‘being John’) during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Subsequently, we must consider the potential ‘serious’ undertones beneath the seemingly light-hearted nature of these three writings.

Words, works, and omissions

Giorgio Sale — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This study delves into the onomaturgic techniques employed by Roger de Bussy-Rabutin to prompt interpretative engagement from readers and reveal the true identities concealed behind the fictional personas in his satirical novel, Histoire amoureuse des Gaules (1665). These techniques encompass phonemic and graphemic elements, occasionally intertwined with intricate and sophisticated intertextual allusions.

Names and sources in "Julius Caesar"

Grant W. Smith — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Shakespeare’s central plots usually rely heavily on primary source plots. At the same time, he often renamed characters and added characters to modify the themes and actions of his source plots, especially in his comedies. However, he usually added far fewer names in his histories and tragedies. Thus, his relative use of names from source plots compared to his addition of new names, the subject of my research, is a useful indicator of his partial reliance on plot sources and of his apparent presumption of their non-fictive status. In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare closely follows the action described in Plutarch’s chapters on Marcus Brutus and Julius Caesar in his Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romanes (North’s 1579 translation). He adds a few names from other sources and coins a few of his own. Thus, Julius Caesar typifies Shakespeare’s use of names in his histories and tragedies and reflects his apparent presumption of Plutarch’s non-fictive status. At the same time, Shakespeare uses far more names from Plutarch’s life of Brutus than from his lives of Julius Caesar or Mark Antony. Thus, his thematic emphasis is on Brutus and on his sense of ‘honour’ as a tragic strength. It is Shakespeare’s first great tragedy, typified by the irony of the protagonist’s virtue.

Introduction

Redazione — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Aleksander Wilkoń, Kanonist der polnischen literarischen Onomastik

Alessandro Amenta — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The name between myth and poetry

Luigi Sasso — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Proper noun and textual semantics

Lorella Sini — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Repertorio bibliografico dell’onomastica letteraria in Italia (2022-2023)

Leonardo Terrusi — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000