Nazwy własne w najnowszej prozie polskiej - między idiolektem a problematyką współczesnej kultury

Abstract

The aim of the dissertation entitled Proper Names in the Newest Prose – between Idiolect and the Issues of Modern Culture is to present the functioning of the proprial sphere in the youngest Polish literature, with particular focus on chrematoma, whose presence is increasingly visible in the newest artistic texts. Onomastic analyses have been conducted and set against the backdrop of postmodernism, fluid modernity, current sociological problems and contemporary culture (including popular culture). What is researched in the individual parts of the work is the relationship between proper names in the context of the frequently discussed themes of contemporary culture, such as time, space and consumption. The chapter dedicated to the analysis of proper names versus the issues of temporality, revealed a problem of the importance of the contemporary Polish prose and its future readership in the perspective of the next decades. Is the newest literature doomed to be short lived by its preference for the onyms, due to the increasing frequency of impermanent propria in literature? Is this very volatility what has the “onymic” quickly fall prey to the archaic, that is the cause of the potential precariousness of the contemporary literature and its reluctant reception (albeit often stemming from its incomprehension)? The deliberations over the representation of the onyms in space have led to a claim that in the newest literature the physical space has given room to a more pronounced mental space. The dominance of the latter (as all action in a text happens in some kind of a space) can thus be an argument for the need or even necessity to adopt an utterly new vision, a different approach to the propria by a researcher-onomast, calling for a revision and reconceptualization of the function of the proper names to meet the contemporary realities. The review of the newest literature focused on the proper names referencing consumptionism leads to conclusions of a similar weight. First of all, it allows to see chrematonyms as identifying names, as characterizing and classifying, conveying the protagonist’s personality, but also marking their place in the society. There is no doubt that the propria referencing consumptionism can be considered key to interpreting a given work – both its time and place, and the interior life of its protagonists. By scrutinizing the latter by way of an introspection, the onyms build the literary representation of a character. One should be aware though, that the function of the consumption-related names and the assumptions around them refer only to the newest prose. They are not universal and are subject to verification over the course of time and the frequently changing currents of the contemporary culture. Considering both the presence and absence of brands of various consumptive goods, a claim can be formulated that the chrematonyms constitute an important element of contemporary literature, supporting consequently a thesis that this very literature conveys a language of consumptionism. As the observations made reveal, this language manifests itself in two variants – gibberish and vomit. The analyses of proper names appearing in the works of selected writers made it possible to distinguish quasi-topical names found in those works. What is more, they revealed a repertoire of onyms characteristic of certain writers, vouching for themes of their special attention and care. These features in turn point to the role of the propria in building the idiolects of the authors the newest literature. This, consequently, constitutes the basis for speaking of a linguistic world view. The research conducted in the hereby presented work clearly allows for a claim that based on the various realizations of the idiolectic features of contemporary prose writers, it becomes possible to make important conclusions on the language of the newest prose per se as well as distinguish its typical tendencies.