Anthroponymic system of VS. Makanin’s novel “Asan”

The article focuses on the analysis of anthroponyms of Makanin’s novel “Asan”. The study is concerned with the system of proper names in Makanin’s literary work. The purpose of the undertaken analysis is to identify the role of an-throponyms in the space of a literary text, especially in connection with the ability to express the author’s intentions. The study resulted in several characters of the novel and Alexander Sergeevich Zhilin, the main character, the most interesting of them, a variation of which is in the title and in the semantic center. The character’s anthroponymicon represents an independent subsystem, the components of which are conceptually opposite and diametrically divided between Major Zhilin and Asan. The character’s name, along with the officer’s rank, self-identifies the literary personality and expresses the author’s attitude. The pseudo-mythological name of Asan reveals the connection between blood and money, reducing the protective semantics and reflecting the tragic richness of the character’s personality. The concrete and complex narrative personifies the character’s name and interacts with others in synchrony and diachrony. In addition to Major Zhilin, Major Khvorostinin and General Bazanov are also called Aleksandr. The names used in the novel are associated with the Caucasian texts of Russian literature and are aimed at a polemical or innovative reading of the tradition. The phonetic transformation of names becomes Makanin’s important evaluative and semantic tool, which emphasizes the discrepancy between the nominated person and the nominee.