The Onomastic Catalogue of the Aventures de Monsieur Dassoucy (1677): Between Individual Memory, History and Mythology

Abstract

This study highlights the difficult categorization of Aventures de Monsieur Dassoucy as autobiography, largely due to the author’s belated revelation of the correspondence between author, narrator, and protagonist. Moreover, the author appears to pursue onomastic reticence inconsistently when designating his contemporaries. More complex is the treatment of names drawn from history or literary tradition, which are frequently employed as comparatives but deployed according to functions and purposes typical of burlesque and heroicomic style. The author’s onomastic repertoire also serves to exhibit the writer’s erudition and to establish a selective readership – an equally cultured audience capable of understanding the historical, mythological, and literary references, sometimes audacious, entrusted solely to onomastic allusion.