Attila József’s theory of the magic of names and onomastic inspiration

József Attila névvarázs-elmélete és névtani ihlete

Abstract

The relationship between literature and onomastics is, in an overwhelming majority of cases, studied within the area of prose narratives. Such focusing of attention is reasonable, inasmuch as the practice of literary name giving provides copious food for thought and in fact enforces the exploration of that particular field. It is a slightly unusual case when it is a lyricist who finds himself intensely interested in onomastic problems. The case of Dezső Kosztolányi is even more complex: he had a significant oeuvre both in prose fiction and in poetry, and it is often difficult to tease apart his lyricist’s and prose writer’s motivation and experience in his numerous linguistic reflections on onomastic issues. The case of Attila József, the actual topic of the present paper, is far clearer. He built a theoretical conception of poetry around proper nouns. This is called his “theory of the magic of names”. In his theoretical discussions, the poet tried to unfold the secret of the power of words and to unravel the linguistic prerequisites of strong poetic effect. He struck upon the problem of name giving as he was investigating those issues. He then applied that knowledge, partly relying on personal experience and partly on theoretical points based on ethnological considerations, in creating his own poems. This aspect of his poetry is known as “onomastic inspiration”. The paper studies the first phase of that complex process. Later on, the poet adhered to that conception but complemented it with onomastic aspects of Freudian depth psychology. The study of those later developments will be a topic for another paper.