Eponomy
The rhetorical figure eponomasia is the replacement of a term by the characteristic proper name of a well-known historical or literary example as a substitute for the term.
Eponomasien are often, but also in the literature in the feature pages used. It is an intertextual game with the reader to create new eponomasies, but there are also well-known cases of names that have become concepts. Example: “an unbelieving Thomas” instead of “skeptic”, “a Don Juan” or “a Casanova” instead of “passionate lover / seducer”, or “my Eckermann” instead of “the one who will write my biography”, “Hinz and Kunz “(Short forms of Heinrich and Konrad, the first name most frequently given in Hesse in the 16th century) for“ Jedermann, Alle ”.
literature
- Fritz C. Müller: Who is behind it? Names that became terms. Düsseldorf / Vienna 1964
- Louis van Stekelenburg: Gevleugelde names. People uit Literatuur en Omgangstaal. Saint-Nicolas-du Pélem 2002
- Heinrich Lausberg: Elements of literary rhetoric. An introduction for students of classical, Romance, English and German philology. 2nd, significantly expanded edition Munich 1963, here § 140.3 (p. 56: "Vossianische Antonomasie").
- Gert Ueding : Introduction to rhetoric. History, technology, method. Stuttgart 1976, p. 245 ("Vossianische Antonomasie")