Archetypal name

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An archetypal name is a proper name of a real person or mythological or fictional character that has become a designation for an archetype of a certain personal trait. [1] It is a form of antonomasia.

Contents

Archetypal names are a literary device used to allude to certain traits of a character or a plot. [1]

Literary critic Egil Törnqvist mentions possible risks in choosing certain names for literary characters. For example, if a person is named Abraham, it is uncertain whether the reader will be hinted of the biblical figure or Abraham Lincoln, and only the context provides the proper understanding. [1]

Examples

Persons

Groups

A name may also be an identifier of a social group, an ethnicity, nationality, or geographical locality. [1]

Some of the names below may also be used as ethnic slurs.

Animals

In French, the Latin-derived word for the fox (French : goupil ) was replaced by French : renard , from Renart, the fox hero of the Roman de Renart (originally the German Reinhard).

Traits

Real persons

Fictional or mythological characters

[10]

See also

Related Research Articles

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The concept of an archetype appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Character (arts)</span> Fictional being in a narrative

In fiction, a character is a person or other being in a narrative. The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, in which case the distinction of a "fictional" versus "real" character may be made. Derived from the Ancient Greek word χαρακτήρ, the English word dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones by Henry Fielding in 1749. From this, the sense of "a part played by an actor" developed. Character, particularly when enacted by an actor in the theater or cinema, involves "the illusion of being a human person". In literature, characters guide readers through their stories, helping them to understand plots and ponder themes. Since the end of the 18th century, the phrase "in character" has been used to describe an effective impersonation by an actor. Since the 19th century, the art of creating characters, as practiced by actors or writers, has been called characterization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethnic stereotype</span> Belief in certain typical characteristics for a grouping of people

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Name</span> Word or term used for identification by an external observer

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Villain</span> Evil character or person

A villain is a stock character, whether based on a historical narrative or one of literary fiction. Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines such a character as "a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel; or a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot". The antonym of a villain is a hero.

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The suffix -onym is a bound morpheme, that is attached to the end of a root word, thus forming a new compound word that designates a particular class of names. In linguistic terminology, compound words that are formed with suffix -onym are most commonly used as designations for various onomastic classes. Most onomastic terms that are formed with suffix -onym are classical compounds, whose word roots are taken from classical languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reynard the Fox</span> Cycle of medieval, allegorical, Belgian fable

Reynard the Fox is a literary cycle of medieval allegorical Dutch, English, French and German fables. The first extant versions of the cycle date from the second half of the 12th century. The genre was popular throughout the Late Middle Ages, as well as in chapbook form throughout the Early Modern period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Byronic hero</span> Type of antihero often characterized by isolation and contemplation

The Byronic hero is a variant of the Romantic hero as a type of character, named after the English Romantic poet Lord Byron. Historian and critic Lord Macaulay described the character as "a man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow, and misery in his heart, a scorner of his kind, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep and strong affection".

In rhetoric, antonomasia is a kind of metonymy in which an epithet or phrase takes the place of a proper name, such as "the little corporal" for Napoleon I, or conversely the use of a proper name as an archetypal name, to express a generic idea. A frequent instance of antonomasia in the Late Middle Ages and early Renaissance was the use of the term "the Philosopher" to refer to Aristotle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bryges</span> People of the Ancient Balkans

Bryges or Briges is the historical name given to a people of the ancient Balkans. They are generally considered to have been related to the Phrygians, who during classical antiquity lived in western Anatolia. Both names, Bryges and Phrygians, are assumed to be variants of the same root. Based on archaeological evidence, some scholars such as Nicholas Hammond and Eugene N. Borza argue that the Bryges/Phrygians were members of the Lusatian culture that migrated into the southern Balkans during the Late Bronze Age.

Identification refers to the automatic, subconscious psychological process in which an individual becomes like or closely associates themselves with another person by adopting one or more of the others' perceived personality traits, physical attributes, or some other aspect of their identity. The concept of identification was founded by psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud in the 1920’s, and has since been expanded on and applied in psychology, social studies, media studies, and literary and film criticism. In literature, identification most often refers to the audience identifying with a fictional character, however it can also be employed as a narrative device whereby one character identifies with another character within the text itself.

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Chanticleer and the Fox is a fable that dates from the Middle Ages. Though it can be compared to Aesop's fable of The Fox and the Crow, it is of more recent origin. The story became well known in Europe because of its connection with several popular literary works and was eventually recorded in collections of Aesop's Fables from the time of Heinrich Steinhowel and William Caxton onwards. It is numbered 562 in the Perry Index.

The Romantic hero is a literary archetype referring to a character that rejects established norms and conventions, has been rejected by society, and has themselves at the center of their own existence. The Romantic hero is often the protagonist in a literary work, and the primary focus is on the character's thoughts rather than their actions.

Per Egil Törnqvist was Professor Emeritus of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Amsterdam and an academic literary critic.

Characterization or characterisation is the representation of characters in narrative and dramatic works. The term character development is sometimes used as a synonym. This representation may include direct methods like the attribution of qualities in description or commentary, and indirect methods inviting readers to infer qualities from characters' actions, dialogue, or appearance. Such a personage is called a character. Character is a literary element.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trickster</span> Literary archetype

In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherwise disobey normal rules and defy conventional behavior.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Egil Törnqvist (2004) "Eugene O'Neill: A Playwright's Theatre", ISBN   0-7864-1713-7, Chapter 8: "Personal Names and Words of Address"
  2. "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow". arf.ru. Archived from the original on 22 April 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-10.
  3. Handy, B.; Swaeny, G. (2003-08-18), "The Summer of Bruce", Time , archived from the original on January 14, 2009, retrieved 2008-03-10
  4. Takeda Hiroko (2004) "The Political Economy of Reproduction in Japan", ISBN   0-415-32190-5
  5. Tempest, Kathryn (2017). Brutus : the noble conspirator. New Haven. ISBN   978-0-300-18009-1. OCLC   982651923.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. "Bradmanesque". www.collinsdictionary.com. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
  7. Guha, Ramachandra (30 June 2016). The Picador Book of Cricket. Pan Macmillan. ISBN   9781509841400 via Google Books.
  8. "Market in Bradmanesque form". www.capitalmarket.co.in. 7 February 2007. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 2 March 2009.
  9. Ehrlich, Eugene (2014-01-28), What's in a Name?: How Proper Names Became Everyday Words, Henry Holt, ISBN   9781466863200 , retrieved 2020-08-04
  10. "Dante's Inferno - Circle 9 - Cantos 31-34". danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2021-07-23.