«Preferirebbe buttar via il nome». L’evasione dal principium individuationis del nome e dall’identità in ‘Rubè’ di Borgese

The paper highlights the remarkable pregnancy, in thematic, ideological, formal and even structural terms, of names in Rubè (1921), a novel by Giuseppe Antonio Borgese, focusing on the troublesome relationship that the main character Filippo Rubè establishes with them, leading to an identity crisis. Capone identifies five modes of using names in Rubè: the escape from the principium individuationis of the name as an ideological breakout from the chains of a fixed identity; the intentional modifications of his name made by Rubè in order to avoid his registry and social identity and, thus, to be able to escape from the duties of ordinary life; the change of the names of the women loved by Filippo; some irreversible plot twists brought about by proper names; the inability to give adequate names to blurred feelings. By the analysis of these uses, the author points out how many times in Rubè not just nomina sunt consequentia rerum, but res sunt consequentia nominum as well.