Gillian Sharman wrote:
>Giorgio Bassani used the pseudonym Giacomo Marchi - I have a vague
>idea Marchi was the family name of a female ancestor.
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Some pseudonyms may have been dictated by political circumstances. Did
Franco Lattes's change of surname to Fortini offer him any additional
protection during the time of the racial laws? (I gather that in Italy
after 1938, Jews could avoid some civil disabilities if they became
Christians --- is this correct?)
Pseudonyms seem to be a feature of Italian literary life anyway --- from
the sobriquets of Renaissance academies up to Trilussa. Do all pseudonyms
(in Italy, and elsewhere) tend towards choosing a national identity through
a regular-sounding name? If Pincherle becomes Moravia, Schmitz becomes
Svevo, is that different from Suckert becoming Malaparte? It's certainly
different from Tranquilli becoming Silone.
Are there any cases of non-Jewish writers opting for Jewish-sounding names,
or Jewish writers opting for other Jewish-sounding names?
Is it in _Take A Girl Like You_ that Kingsley Amis has a wonderfully stupid
father who suspisicously guesses the "original" Jewish names of all the men
his daughter meets? "Ah, yes, Standish. That would be 'Schtundisch', you
know."
In Ireland, a name like mine used to provoke the question: "What's that in
English?" Not so much nowadays ...
Cormac O Cuilleanain
Trinity College Dublin
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