L’onomastica ironica di Rodari tra filastrocche e corrispondenza einaudiana

Abstract

Rodari’s choice of names is determined by biographical events: there is a group of highly evocative names, which lend themselves to puns at different levels: a certain character is named Augustus but he is not the emperor, a cat may be named Charlemagne etc. Rodari himself in the Grammatica della fantasia states that one name suggests many others through rhyme, assonance, initial letters, etc. Moreover, it seems that the same applies in the case of his proper names, which often contain one of the playful puns involving phonetics and semantics so characteristic of Rodari, who writes to Giulio Einaudi calling him Don Julio, or Lord and refers to Giulio Bollati as Bollatius.