Literary Onomastics Studies

Literary Onomastics Studies was published from 1974 to 1989 as “the official journal of the proceedings of the annual Conference on Literary Onomastics,” held during those years at SUNY Brockport or in Rochester, New York. The editor throughout that period was Prof. Grace Alvarez-Altman of Brockport’s Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, collaborating with various associate or co- editors from the English Department, as indicated in the annual issues.

List of Papers (Total 255)

Meredith's Use of Names in the Ordeal of Richard Feverel

By Robert F. DeGraaff, Published on 10/24/14

Names in Boris Vian's "Batisseurs d'empire"

By Martha O'Nan, Published on 10/28/14

Onomastic Centrality

By Kelsie B. Harder, Published on 10/28/14

Is Tiamat Really Mother Huber?

By John R. Maier, Published on 10/23/14

Literary Onomastics Typology in Manuel Rueda's Dramas

By Grace Alvarez-Altman, Published on 10/20/14

Epos and Anthroponym: The Poema de Mio Cid

By Wayne H. Finke, Published on 10/16/14

Tom Stoppard and Ferenc Molnar: A Comparison of Onomastics

In lieu of an abstract, the introductory paragraph is included here. Tom Stoppard's hilarious play Rough Crossing was premiered in London in 1984. It had been freely adapted from Ferenc Molnar's classic farce Jatek a kastelyban (literally 'Play at the Castle'). The original play was first produced in Budapest in 1925. Most likely Stoppard's adaptation is based on P. G. Wodehouse...

Michel Butor: The Mytho-Fantastic Function of Naming

Michel Butor, a contemporary writer of the French New Novel, now the New New Novel, makes extensive use of naming, repetition of epithet -like phrases, distortions of q notations, sight -sound similarities of words and phrases, to create stories within stories and from other stories, and to evoke an oneiric level which allows times and locations to blend while still remaining...

Hooray for Hollywood: Onomastic Techniques in Bemelmans

Curs, canine or human, tend to bite the hand that feeds them. Therefore it is not surprising that a lot of satirical barbs have been flung by writers at the dream factories of Hollywood where so many of them have labored. There is a long list of obscure plays about Tinsel Town: Hey Diddle Diddle (Cormack), Schoolhouse on the Lot (Fields and Chodorov), The Greatest Find Since...

Of Madness and machines: Names in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Included here is the introductory paragraph of the article. Ken Kesey's first novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, reflects his experiences as a young attendant in two California mental hospitals in which he was employed. Book reviewers spoke highly of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and recognized the authority with which Kesey captured the day-to-day routines and events in...

Lexemes Into Names

In lieu of an abstract, this is the opening paragraph of the article. Nominization (a term proposed by W. H. F. Nicolaisen in a personal communication, 1988) is a mechanism of name formation that involves the conversion of a lexeme into a name. The opposite is generally called commonization, by which a name is converted into a lexeme. Dr. Nicolaisen has suggested that...

The Art of Naming in China and Translating Western Names Into Chinese

What follows is the introductory paragraph of the article. A name in China is much more than a code of a certain person to distinguish him from another. It often associates the person with many interesting things, such as a line of a poem, a picture, a song, or a famous person. Judging from these clues, one can tell where a person was born, how old he is, what kind of cultural...

Trends in the Naming of Modern Indian Children

Naming of children becomes an important ritual in the lives of Hindu Indians. Children are often named after epic gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines. Names are also made up to reflect desirable qualities or personal features. This paper reviews the trends in the naming of modern Indian children, which have passed through different phases since the times of Rig Veda, the...

Poly-Anthroponomical Technique in Buero Vallejo's Drama Las Meninas

In lieu of an abstract, the introductory paragraph is included here. Twenty-five years after the Civil War (1936-1939), known as the "Little World War

Crossing Deep Rivers: Jose Maria Arguedas and the Renaming of Peru

In lieu of an abstract the introductory paragraph is included here. From the earliest days of the Discovery, the Spaniards had problems with naming in the New World. They had difficulties with the pronunciation and spelling of the Indian names for people and places, and they had to accept the native terminology for objects which had no name in Spanish because they did not exist...

Naming and Namelessness in Jose Ruibal's La Maquina de Pedir

In lieu of an abstract, here is the introductory paragraph of the article. During the nearly forty-year regime of Generalissimo Francisco Franco, Spain's literary production entered a period of semi-dormancy occasioned by severe limitations of censorship and repression of creative energies, particularly in the area of the theater.1 While theaters, especially in Madrid, were...

Name-Calling as Power Play in Shakespeare's 1 Henry IV

In lieu on an abstract, here are a few sentences from an early paragraph of the article. The main premise of this paper is that name-calling- as when youngsters call each other Fatty, Skinny, or Sissy-is a form of authorship as well as an instrument used in maintaining social norms. The name-caller is creating a specific role for the victim by use of a name with particular...

Nominal Jests in Shakespeare's Plays

In lieu of an abstract, this is the first paragraph of the article. Nominal jests were very popular among the literati of the English Renaissance. The plays and poems of the period are studded with name-play, and Shakespeare, with his lively mind, excelled at the game. 1 Much has been written of his jests on his own name in the Sonnets 2 and on his name usage in the plays. 3...

The Roman Hydra in Du Bellay's Les Antiquitez de Rome

In lieu of an abstract, this is the first paragraph of the article. In "Plus qu'aux bords Aeteans le brave filz d'Aeson," the French Renaissance poet Joachim Du Bellay evokes the classical myths of Jason and Golden Fleece, the Hydra, and the Labors of Hercules. In this sonnet, the tenth of Du Bellay's Les Antiquitez de Rome of 1558, the poet transforms these classical names and...