The name in evidence: Richard Millet's Le Renard dans le nom

In Richard Millet’s 2003 récit, Le Renard dans le nom, the fox in the name is the vulpes etymologically present in the name of the principal character Pierre-Marie Lavolps. When a young girl is murdered, Lavolps is presumed to be the murderer on the evidence of his name. Examination of the evidence brings associations with animality and the archaism of rural France, but also the cultural symbolism of the fox, as represented by Le Roman de Renart. In the end, the name is seen to function as a fragile metaphor for an otherness that overflows, for example, the name as understood by literary onomastics.