Naming in Xhosa folk-tales: A literary device

Abstract

Onomastics has as its object the study of proper names. Literary onomastics is defined by Alvarez-Altman as follows: ‘Literary onomastics is a more specialized literary criticism in which scholars are concerned with the levels of significance of names in drama, poetry, fiction and folklore. These include names of places, characters, cosmic symbols, etcetera as they relate to theme, structure and other literary considerations.’ The focus in this article is largely on characterization through naming, a well-known literary device. The purpose is to establish whether and to what extent the folk-tale narrator of Xhosa iintsomi employs this technique. The impact of a literary work of art can be increased by using proper names, by concentrating on the evocative and connotative levels. Although not extremely rewarding for onomastic analysis, the iintsomi offer enough data to warrant a study of this nature.