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- Title
Names in Hyperreality: A Postmodern Outlook Towards the Role of Mass Media in Bengali Naming Patterns in Urban Context.
- Authors
Bhattacherjee, Monalisa
- Abstract
Names are a part of every culture. Not only are they of enormous importance to the giver and the receiver, but also act as signs. In recent times, the personal names of the Hindu-Bengali community of Kolkata have witnessed noticeable change. The contemporary personal names reflect Kolkata's transition from a traditional city of pre-colonial era to a contemporary post-modern place. Many of the personal names also give information about the influence of mass media in eroding the boundaries between the ethnic and the globalized cosmopolitan identity. Using a postmodern theoretical analysis of the data collected from four schools of Kolkata, this paper analyses the media-influenced hyperreal scenario within which patterns of names are going through constant mutation. The findings of this research provide insights into the connection of the hyperreal stage and the contemporary nomenclature system where the personal name acts as a floating signifier without any definite signified. Names will then reflect a psychosocial desire and the multiplicities and complexities involved therein which is different from the comparatively stable naming pattern of earlier times. The findings of this paper also put forth the contestation between ethnicity and cosmopolitanism as portrayed in the changing naming pattern.
- Subjects
MASS media; HYPERREALITY; NAMES; BENGALI (South Asian people); COSMOPOLITANISM
- Publication
Language in India, 2020, Vol 20, Issue 1, p15
- ISSN
1930-2940
- Publication type
Article