Прецедентные имена и их роль в создании образа Руфи Морз в романе Дж. Лондона «Мартин Иден»

Abstract

The article investigates the precedent names in Jack London’s novel “Martin Eden” that have not been subjected to analysis in linguistic literature. The aim of the research is to study the precedent names functioning as a means of creating the character of Ruth Morse, the major heroine in the novel. The scientific originality of the research lies in identifying the axiological, appellative-associative and expressive-characterising functions of the precedent names regarding this heroine. It is the first time that the domain sources of the precedent names under analysis have been determined, including literature, music, and religion. The research findings showed that the text of the novels contains references to the poetry by A. Swinburne, A. Tennyson, R. Browning, H. Longfellow, R. Kipling, the music by R. Wagner and the Old Testament texts from the Bible when it comes to creating Ruth Morse’s character. The researchers found that the precedent names reflect the dynamic nature of the protagonist’s view and evaluation of the main heroine, changing from idealisation (a “divine ideal”) into absolutely negative. The paper shows that precedent phenomena are used as a stylistic device, i.e., charactonyms, in quotations and to create allusive references.