The functioning of proper names in S. Lukyanenko’s “Night Watch”

Abstract

Abstract

The paper examines the functioning of proper names in S. Lukyanenko’s novel “Night Watch”. The relevance of the topic is determined by the fact that in urban fantasy, poetonyms do not merely nominate characters and places, but also become a key instrument of double-world modelling, combining everyday Moscow reality with a hidden supernatural dimension. The aim of the study is to identify the composition of the novel’s onomastic space and to describe the functions of anthroponyms, toponyms, ergonyms, and precedent names in the text. The theoretical framework is based on studies in literary onomastics, poetonymology, and the poetics of urban fantasy. The methodology includes continuous sampling of proper names from the novel, contextual, functional-semantic, and intertextual analyses. The scientific novelty of the article lies in treating the onomasticon of “Night Watch” as a system, in which nuclear and peripheral units not only identify characters, but also shape evaluation, mark institutional hierarchy, and create the effect of reality. Our analysis demonstrates that proper names in the novel perform a complex of interrelated functions: identifying, characterizing, localizing, text-forming, as well as intertextual and axiological functions. The practical analysis of the contexts shows that naming strategies ‘stitch’ together ordinary Moscow urban space and the mythologized conflict between Light and Darkness.