ANTHROPONYMICON OF A FICTION TEXT AS MANIFESTATION OF THE AUTHOR’S NARRATIVE PLAN

Abstract

The article explores the peculiarities of narrative function of proper names in the fiction text. We support Schmid's model of double communication in fiction and claim that the reader participates in two communicative acts with the narrator and the author of the text. Constant monitoring of not only what is narrated, but also by whom, in what sequence, in what way, etc., is one of the reader’s processing strategies that leads to “thickening” of the narrative world. This double communication allows the reader to view the narrative from two angles (the author’s and the narrator’s) and consider themselves a participant of both communicative acts. Thus, literary cognition essentially involves collecting and interpreting data from both narrative planes, as well as their thorough comparison and search for plausible explanations in case of discrepancies. The intricate relationships between both narrative plans can be clarified by analyzing the telltale and precendent names deployed by the auther. We illustrate our findings on the basis of I. Murdoch’s novel “A Word Child”. This author has employed the value of proper names to the full by achieving several effects simultaneously: they indicate the dominant features of the personality (sometimes directly, but often in the form of antithesis), indicate the author’s or the narrator’s attitude to the characters, and finally, attract reader’s attention to the domains of religion and philosophy, thus, revealing to some extent the author’s philosophic views. Thus, Christopher as a Buddhist symbolizes unity of two great world religions – Christianity and Buddhism; Arthur Fisch (who has a “strong” “heroic” name and a “weak” surname) symbolizes the opposition of the author’s and the protagonist’s points of view concerning the personality trates of this character. Even some characters of minor importance get the names that emphasize their vices (Witcher, Farbottom) or appearance (Bisset), etc. In the case of “A word child”, we find its literary value in versatile insights that readers may get by participating in a thought-provoking linguistic, artistic, and intellectual game preconceived by the author.