2023, Volume 20, Issue 2
|
Antonina P. Lipatova Variation of Proper Names in Nikola Znamensky by Fyodor Reshetnikov
Voprosy onomastiki, 2023, Volume 20, Issue 2, pp. 270–287 (in Russian) Received on 8 May 2022 Abstract: The paper explores the variety of onomastic strategies in the short story Nikola Znamensky by Fyodor Reshetnikov, a follower of the ethnographic movement in the Russian literature of 1860s. It is typical for his works to omit the use of first names in the titles (Glumovs, Aunt Oparikh, Gossip Mironikh, Ilyich, Maxya, Yashka) whilst they play an important role in the stories. For example, the Doctor’s story begins with the first name and so it ends. The name suggests that the protagonist (albeit not openly) opposes himself to the official church position. Apart from that, the character himself claims that the name predicts his fate. Having lost the spiritual title, he also refuses the name. Within the text, only ten characters are named, and the naming strategies used in each case are different. The distinguishing factor is the variability of the name forms. This article aims to understand whether this variation affects the way the nature of the character is represented in the story. The analysis shows that the story features six context-driven forms of the name of the story’s main character, Nikola Znamensky. Religious teachers address Nikola by using the full form of the name. The narrator also refers to him as Nikolai. The character himself (and his fellows) tend to use both the full and the “folk” forms of the name (Nikola, Mikola, Mikula). The members of the family use the hypocoristic forms. The names of other characters (from the family circle: brother, sons) are also subject to change: the full form is typical for the speech of the narrator, the derivative diminutive -ka appears in the speech of the priest. The protagonist’s namesake son also has a separate derivative name reference (Nikolai — Kolka) which emphasizes the special role of the title character. The name’s variability thus reflects the main character’s embedding into various social networks and, more importantly, into the “folk” paradigm linking it to the figure of Saint Nicholas. The author concludes that Reshetnikov uses name variability as a characteristic means that adds to the types portrayed in the story. Keywords: Fyodor Reshetnikov, Nikola Znamensky, anthroponymy, literary onomastics, variability, onomastic strategy References Astafyeva, E. A. (2016). Faktory, opredeliaiushchie vybor formy lichnykh imen v diskurse dialektnoi iazykovoi lichnosti [Factors Determining the Choice of the Form of Personal Names in the Discourse of a Dialect Speaker]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 407, 5–10. Bakastova, G. V. (1984). Imia sobstvennoe v khudozhestvennom tekste [Proper Name in a Literary Text]. In Yu. A. Karpenko (Ed.), Russkaia onomastika [Russian Onomastics] (pp. 23–27). Odesa: Odesa I. I. Mechnikov State University. Baranova, K. I. (2013). Ob assotsiativnom potentsiale imeni glavnoi geroini v rasskaze T. N. Tolstoi “Okhota na mamonta” [On the Potential Associative Meaning of the Main Character’s Name in the Story Hunting for a Mammoth by Tatyana Tolstaya]. Voprosy onomastiki, 1, 79–87. Ershov, M. F. (2014). Teksty pisatelei-realistov kak istoriko-etnograficheskie istochniki provintsial’noi zhizni vtoroi poloviny XIX — nachala XX v. [Texts of Realist Writers as Historical and Ethnographic Sources of Provincial Life in the Second Half of the 19th — early 20th Centuries]. Vestnik ugrovedeniia, 3, 133–143. Fokeev, A. L. (2004). Etnograficheskoe napravlenie v russkom literaturnom protsesse XIX veka (istoki, tip tvorchestva, istoriia razvitiia) [Ethnographic Movement in the Russian Literary Process of the 19th Century (Origins, Style, Development)] (Habilitation dissertation). Moscow State University of Education, Moscow. Fomin, A. A. (2009). Vsegda li literaturnaia onomastika tozhdestvenna poeticheskoi onomastike? [Is Literary Onomastics Always the Equivalent of Poetic Onomastics?]. Voprosy onomastiki, 7, 57–67. Fomin, A. A. (2019). Zagadochnyi Arventur: poetonim kak kliuchevoe slovo proizvedeniia [The Mysterious Arventur: Poetonym as a Key Word of a Literary Work]. Voprosy onomastiki, 16(4), 180–201. http://doi.org/10.15826/vopr_onom.2019.16.4.052 Fomin, A. A. (2021). Onomasticheskaia pushkiniana: o poetonimakh Larin, Larina, Lariny v romane “Evgenii Onegin” [Onomastics in Pushkin Studies: The Names Larin, Larina, Lariny in Eugene Onegin]. Voprosy onomastiki, 18(2), 156–176. http://doi.org/10.15826/10.15826/vopr_onom.2021.18.2.024 Gorbanevsky, M. V. (1988). Onomastika v khudozhestvennoi literature [Onomastics in Literature]. Moscow: RUDN Press. Kubasov, A. V. (2017). Khudozhestvenno-dokumental’naia ocherkovaia proza F. M. Reshetnikova [Fiction and Documentary Essay Prose by F. M. Reshetnikov]. [S.l.]: Izdatel’skie resheniia. Matveyev, E. M., & Bukharkin, P. E. (2020). Antroponimy v russkoi literature XVIII veka: o nekotorykh aspektakh funktsionirovanii imeni v ode i tragedii [Anthroponyms in Russian Literature of the 18th Century: Names in Ode and Tragedy]. Russkaia literatura, 3, 5–19. Shelgunov, N. (1871). Narodnyi realizm v literature [Popular Realism in Literature]. Delo, 5. Retrieved from http://az.lib.ru/s/shelgunow_n_w/text_1871_realizm.shtml (accessed on: 07.05.2022). Sokolova, V. F. (2017). Kharakter etnografizma russkoi demokraticheskoi literatury 60-kh godov XIX v [The Nature of the Ethnographicism of Russian Democratic Literature of the 1860s]. Filologicheskie nauki. Voprosy teorii i praktiki, 6-1, 42–44. Sozina, E. K. (2009). Spetsifika zhanrovogo myshleniia F. M. Reshetnikova [The Specifics of Genre in the Works of F. M. Reshetnikov]. In A. V. Podchinenov (Ed.), Dergachevskie chteniia — 2008. Russkaia literatura: natsional’noe razvitie i regional’nye osobennosti. Problema zhanrovykh nominatsii: materialy IX Mezhdunar. nauch. konf. [Dergachev Readings — National and Regional Trends. The Problem of Genre. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference] (Vol. 1, pp. 281–292). Ekaterinburg: Ural University Press. Sozina, E. K. (2021). “Nasha literatura dolzhna govorit’ pravdu”. Realisticheskaia mifopoetika povesti F. M. Reshetnikova “Podlipovtsy” [“Our Literature Must Tell the Truth.” Realistic Mythopoetics of F. M. Reshetnikov’s story Podlipovtsy]. Russkaia slovesnost’, 3, 3–12. Uspenskij, B. A. (1982). Filologicheskie razyskaniia v oblasti slavianskikh drevnostei. Relikty iazychestva v vostochnoslavianskom kul’te Nikolaia Mirlikiiskogo [Philological Research in the Field of Slavic Antiquities. Relics of Paganism in the East Slavic cult of Nicholas of Myra]. Moscow: Moscow University Press. Vasilyeva, N. V. (2019). Literaturnaia onomastika: traditsionnoe i novoe [Literary Onomastics: Traditional and New]. Voprosy onomastiki, 16(4), 241–251. http://doi.org/10.15826/vopr_onom.2019.16.4.055 Vinogradova, N. V. (2001). Imia personazha v khudozhestvennom tekste: funktsional’no-semanticheskaia tipologiia [Name of a Character in a Literary Text: Functional and Semantic Typology] (Doctoral dissertation). Tver State University, Tver.
|
 |
