Proper names in literature: A “reevaluation of all values”

Parting from Roman Jakobson's insight that "poeticalness is [] a total reevaluation of the discourse and of all its components whatsoever", this contribution intends to show that this reevaluation concerns practically all functions of proper names in literature. Thus, the principal task of literary names is not identification, but the establishment of the literary character. In literature, identification becomes a secondary function in the course of the narration. On the other hand, associations and connotations connected with proper names, such as preproprial meaning ("cratylic names"), reference to homonymous literary or "real" characters ("embodied names"), or other associations which are disturbing in reallife communication, in literary texts attain pre-eminent value. Onymic ambivalence and ambiguity are phenomena which in real-world communication are considered as disturbing factors and speakers intend to eliminate them, but in poetic language writers make manifold use of them. Though toponyms in literature predominantly refer to places that actually exist, they are also apt to perform additional functions