Anthroponyms in F. Peretti’s Novel “The Visit”
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31861/pytlit2024.109.022Keywords:
“Visit” by Frank Peretti, anthroponyms, Christian fictionAbstract
The article examines important anthroponyms in the novel “The Visit” by Frank Peretti, an outstanding author in the genre of Christian fiction whose works are on a par with the stories and novels of Tolkien and Lewis. Anthroponyms in this work of Peretti acquire importance due to the deep meaning connection with the literary, biblical tradition, revealed thanks to the application of the method of careful reading. The author’s naming of his characters testifies to his vision of the text, characters, language picture of the world, and reality, is a factor that determines the ideological and semantic level of the work. Therefore, similar studies open perspectives in these areas. The investigation focuses on the anthropoms of several characters with variants of the name Maria, which also include a significant element of symbolism, several names that belong to one character and reflect the evolution of the hero and his self-identification, mutual reinforcement of the names and surnames of the characters. Thus, for example, the set of names associated with Brandon Nichols (Justin Cantwell) reveals his evolution from a person who succumbs to suffering to a false messiah with signs of false brilliance and pathos. The advantage of this study is taking into account the functionality of anthroponyms, which, thanks to their widespread use, contribute the quality of characters some objects of the story (for example, a church dedicated to the Virgin of the Fields). The mutual strengthening of the meaning of different degrees of anthroponyms can be traced both in characters with a tendency towards a clear homogeneous positive orientation (Marian Ciardelli, Kyle Sherman) and in a hero with a more diverse range of evaluation of personality qualities (Brandon Nichols). The presence of different, unrelated, or little related meanings of the name helps to create a three-dimensional image of the hero, as in the case of Brandon Nichols, and leave the reader free for his/her perception and interpretation of the characters.
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