This article addresses the issue of the interpretation of proper names in poetry. The state of research on the functions of proper names in literature is well described, but it is possible to note the lack of a fixed interpretation strategy in poetry which means that, despite little interest in poetry, its researchers often try to propose their own methods of analysis. The authors of the article, who tackle onyms in the poetry of Bruno Jasieński, present their own methodological approach to the matter, based on B. Waldenfels’ concept of the “phenomenology of the alien”.

The theme of the description and analysis are the titles of stories in the collection „Na Skalnym Podhalu” by Kazimierz Tetmajer, as well as the title of the whole book itself. The aim of this description is to indicate the formal (syntactic) and semantic differentiation of titles, to present their stylistic and textual conditions and determine the function which they have in the structure of individual stories and in the whole collection. As far as the form is concerned, one can distinguish between double (3) and simple (36) titles. A considerable number of simple titles are in the form of a sentence (10), one title represents announcements (nominal sentences), the remaining ones (25) are the titles in the form of notifi cation. The most common and the most characteristic titles for that collection are the titles-sentences with a structure of Jak umarł Jakub Zych and determining announcements with a structure of O Wojtku cudaku. In terms of semantics, the titles of stories represent the basic type which is informative and descriptive one because they provide information on the content of stories: most often about main characters or plot themes, less frequently about the place of the action, theme or type of the text. One of the titles has an interpretative value. The titles occurring in “Na Skalnym Podhalu” strongly correlate with the style of texts in the collection, where the dominant principle is folklore. This principle is visible in the stylisation of the Podhale dialect and in the stylisation of a tale as the form of oral folk tale. Thus, the presence of dialect forms and dialect lexis as well as many proper names which were authentic lexically and often also denotatively, being connected with geographical and cultural space of the Podhale region and Tatra mountains. Furthermore, the pattern “O + miejscownik” (About + locative) referring to metatextual and pragmatic frame of oral folk tales also occurs very often. The titles of stories in the collection “Na Skalnym Podhalu” not only perform the typical delimitative, distinctive and identifying functions but also descriptive and — as in the case of the title of the whole book — integrative ones.

This article deals with the function of proper names in Olga Tokarczuk's novel Anna In w grobowcach świata [ Anna In in the Tombs of the World] and the short story collection Opowiadania bizarne [ Bizarre Stories]. In either case we are confronted with a stunning diversity of imaginary worlds described with erudite care and, by implication, a high level of strategic control. While drawing on a vast pool of well attested names from both Western cultural history and non-European mythologies, she also creates apellatives based on attributes highlighted in the storytelling (the stories themselves are often the product of her magical imagination). Invented or real, all proper names in Tokarczuk's narratives are handled in such a way as to display to the full their semantic, pragmatic and aesthetic qualities. Also, it seems, their placement in the text and their effect on the reader's reactions during the process of reading are carefully planned. what this article tries to demonstrate is that in Tokarczuk's art of fiction the creative transformation of proper names, their reinterpretation and contextualization functions as a complement to the imaginary worlds, rooted in bizarre, meta/genre creativity.

The article expands and modifi es the contexts in which literary onomastics currently operates. This strictly interdisciplinary field of research, primarily originating from linguistics, has sought out the contexts that triggered non-obvious meanings of names readable in the artistic work from the outset. The references were varied – stylistics, textology, philosophy, structural poetics. All of them significantly enriched onomastic analyses, leaving some fundamental sense of insufficiency at the same time. That is the reason why we propose the project of the connection between literary onomastics and — now extremely extensive — theoretical thought. The article is not the end of this discussion, but rather an exploratory study and the beginning of scientific research. Consequently, there is no one ordering and chronological concept with a clear conclusion, but the main aim is to show the analysis of the claims relevant for further research. Therefore, several concepts of theoreticians interested in proper names in literature were discussed (far from a common phenomenon in this case). From the research projects analyzed, including among others: U. Eco, J.F. Lyotard, P. de Man, there emerges a clear conviction of the need to end the search for a referential, texted name. In this place it refers, on the one hand, to itself, establishing its own unreal meaning (image-forming, phonic, intertextual); on the other, it concerns the author’s system of naming (and beyond), which is also an epistemological concept. The starting point of these diagnoses was the thoroughly interpreted self-analysis of artistic works made by Marcel Proust; for further analysis, the thesis of Walter Benn Michaels was also employed, which brings interest in proper names from literature to the domain of artistic experiences. The conducted analysis (designing future literary onomastic research) leads to the fi nal conclusion that the proper name indicates the essence itself, the arche of our existence.