Abstract: The literary work of the Congolese writer Sony Labou Tansi presents a large number of characters with varying statuses. They are distinguished by the names they bear. This contribution analyzes « the names of reigns » that heads of states or sovereigns receive or attribute to themselves as soon as they take power. It shows that in the work of Sony Labou Tansi, the names are consubstantial with the exercise of power. To better circumscribe this problematic, we resort to poetics as both a theory and an approach to the literary text. Poetics is, in fact, interested in the properties of the literary text, and the character is one of them. Among the attributes of the latter, the name is undoubtedly the one which best determines its semiotic course.

Keywords: Names, Characters, Consubstantial, Poetic, Sovereigns, Power.