Как «сдeлaны» имена Набокова?

Abstract

The article is devoted to the names of characters in Vladimir Nabokov's last Russian language novel The Gift. It focuses not only on technical level of the name-build and function, but also on the relation and interference of in the larger context of the whole novel. The name of the main hero, Fëdor Konstantinovič Godunov-Čerdyncev, for example, is described on multiple levels: on etymological (i.e. the Greek origin of Fëdor's name mean-ing 'God's gift'), on phonetical level there is an interference with names like Končeev and Černyševskij. The article attempts to analyse and interpret the name Černyševskij, referring to five different heroes, followed by an overview of the names (and nicknames) of Nikolaj Gavrilovič Černyševskij. Some occasional names (as for example Stockschmeiser and Egda Stoboy) are also an opportunity to demonstrate not only the highly sophisticated technical level, but also the poetical one of Nabokov's prose when constructing a name. Phonetical interference of different names, transformation (or even transliteration) are viewed in the large context of the novel as a whole. The article demonstrates that names are multilevel, sophisticated elements of Nabokov's prose technique, bearing a methonimical character of pars pro toto.