NAMES AND MULTICULTURALISM. BLENDING IN STEPHEN HENIGHAN’S `THE STREETS OF WINTER` AND `THE PALCES WHERE NAMES VANISH`
NAMES AND MULTICULTURALISM. BLENDING IN STEPHEN HENIGHAN’S `THE STREETS OF WINTER` AND `THE PALCES WHERE NAMES VANISH`

Summary/Abstract: The process of globalization has brought about some diverging tendencies in shaping the so-called “geographies of identity”. On the one hand, monocultural societies (ethnic nations or nations of the majority ethnic group) have gradually become more eclectic, if not in ideology (less prone to accept and adopt a policy of cultural and political pluralism) then at least in anthroponymy (people’s choices in name giving being influenced by an unprecedented exposure to a relentless media bombardment – varying according to fashion, TV series, ethnicity or religious affiliation), whereas multicultural societies have been in the position of facing the creation of different ethnic enclaves which, in spite of being subjected to a real or subliminal tendency of levelling, have fought to preserve their own traditions, customs, language and religion, the names, as an identity component, being strongly related to the idea of ethnic belonging. Under these circumstances, my paper starts from identifying the characteristics of Stephen Henighan’s multicultural environment and engages into an anthroponimical analysis of the characters’ first names in the author’s novels The Streets of Winter and The Places Where Names Vanish in order to emphasise their role in identity preservation and belonging.

• Details
• Contents