[Vwoolf] names and nations

[Jeremy Hawthorn]

Stuart's exasperation reminds me of this passage from Joseph Heller's Catch 22 - it deals with surnames rather than given names, but the emotions inspired are similar. Colonel Cathcart has realized how often the name Yossarian is associated with events that dealt him metaphorical black eyes.

Yossarian - the very sight of the name made him shudder. There were so many esses in it. It just had to be subversive. It was like the word subversive itself. It was like seditious and insidious too, and like socialist, suspicious, fascist and Communist. It was an odious, alien distasteful name, that just did not inspire confidence. It was not at all like such clean, crisp, honest American names as Cathcart, Peckem and Dreedle.

(Why does Heller give "Communist" a capital letter?)

One Woolf name I have often wondered about is Giles, in Between the Acts. What associations does that name have for readers - or did it have for Woolf?

Jeremy H


Jeremy Hawthorn
Professor Emeritus
NTNU
7491 Trondheim
Norway

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