Three Times Greger

Reflections on Names and Literary Traditions

Abstract

This article examines the literary function of names through three examples: Ibsen’s The Wild Duck (1884), Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (1915), and Eyvind Johnson’s A Romantic Tale (1953). The analysis demonstrates how the name Greger assumes different roles within distinct literary traditions. In Ibsen, Gregers Werle appears within a realist framework yet with symbolic overtones, where the name both individualizes and carries allegorical significance. In Kafka, Gregor Samsa’s commonplace name stands in stark contrast to the absurdist fantastic, thereby intensifying the tension between the human and the inhuman. In Johnson, Greger functions as a kind of middle ground between these traditions: a self-biographical novel that is at the same time a pronounced metanovel, combining realism with pure fiction.