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Alexey Igorevich Popovich
Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia
ANTHROPONYMS IN THE RUSSIAN 18th CENTURY: BETWEEN LITERATURE AND REALITY
Review of the book: Bukharkin, P. E., Volkov, S. S., & Matveyev, E. M. (Eds.). Antroponimy v russkoi slovesnoi kul’ture XVIII veka [Anthroponyms in the 18th Century Russian Verbal Culture]. St Petersburg: Institute for Linguistic Studies of the RAS, 2023. 584 p.
For citation
Popovich, A. I. (2026). Anthroponyms in the Russian 18th Century: Between Literature and Reality [Review of Antroponimy v russkoi slovesnoi kul’ture XVIII veka ed. by P. E. Bukharkin, S. S. Volkov, & E. M. Matveyev]. Voprosy onomastiki, 23(1), 232–241. https://doi.org/10.15826/vopr_onom.2026.23.1.010
Received on 27 August 2025
Accepted on 6 October 2025
Abstract: This review examines the collective monograph Anthroponyms in the 18th Century Russian Verbal Culture, prepared by an international team of scholars, and notes its strengths and weaknesses. Currently, the role and functions of anthroponyms in 18th-century Russian literature, the systemic connections within the corresponding anthroponymicon, and its historical dynamics are clearly understudied, which determines the value and novelty of the publication under review. The authors of the book address various genres of panegyric literature, ceremonial poetry, drama, narrative literature, official-bureaucratic writing, etc., and identify common and specific mechanisms of functioning of anthroponyms during an era marked by the formation of a new national anthroponymic canon and the assimilation of the European cultural thesaurus. The researchers’ attention is focused on various aspects of pragmatics, referential connections, as well as the historical, cultural and literary conditionality of authorial and genre-based anthroponymicons in Russia throughout the 18th century. The book contains rich linguistic and statistical material on individual genres and authors that will be in demand by modern humanities scholarship. However, different spheres of anthroponymy in 18th century verbal culture are covered in the work with varying degrees of completeness, and the previous literary and rhetorical tradition is ignored or used only sporadically, which makes unconvincing several conclusions about the innovative character of the early modern literary anthroponymicon. Despite the debatable nature of certain propositions and the lack of a single methodological framework, the publication fills many gaps in the study of 18th century anthroponymy and successfully integrates the methods and achievements of various historical and philological disciplines.
Keywords: anthroponymy; literary onomastics; Russian verbal culture; Russian literature; literary genre; referential connections of the name; 18th century
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, project No. 22-18-00488P The Crisis of Values and the Coping Strategies: The Idea of the “Common Wealth” in the Intellectual Discourse of Britain and Russia (1650–1750) (https://rscf.ru/en/project/22-18-00488/).
References
Patroeva, N. V. (2023). [Review of the book: Volkov, S. S. et al. Dictionary of Anthroponyms in Russian Panegyric Poetry of the 18th Century. St Petersburg: Institute for Linguistic Studies of the RAS, 2022. 352 p.]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Filologiia, 84, 272–280. https://doi.org/10.17223/19986645/84/15
Popovich, A. I. (2024). Neproiznesennaia propoved’ Stefana Yavorskogo na den’ Ioanna Zlatousta, 13 noiabria 1708 g.: tekst i kommentarii [An Undelivered Sermon of Stefan Yavorsky on the Day of John Chrysostom, November 13, 1708: Text and Commentary]. Arkheografiia i istochnikovedenie Sibiri, 1, 336–353. https://doi.org/10.31518/3034-2597-2024-1(43).
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