The function of names in Salman Rushdie’s ‘Haroun and the Sea of Stories’

Abstract

The function of names in Salman Rushdie’s ‘Haroun and the Sea of Stories’  

The paper examines how the proper names appearing in Salman Rushdie’s ‘Haroun and the Sea of Stories’ contribute to the interpretation of the work. Three possible readings in relation to names (i.e. the novel as a tale; the novel as an allegory of freedom of speech and communication; the Islamic references in the novel) are presented by the author. The paper discusses the name-theoretic concern interspersing the novel, e.g. name homonymy and name magic; and, in connection with the Hungarian version, some questions of name translation are also mentioned. The author concludes that the applied name stock is extraordinarily complex and varied with respect to its origin and semantics; as a consequence, it plays an important role in constructing the different readings of the text.