Representations of the French Language in the Detective Novel Sous les vents de Neptune by Fred Vargas.

This essay studies the role played by the two equally important varieties of the French language (Québécois and Parisian) present in Sous les vents de Neptune (2004) by Fred Vargas, and sets the novel in the context of recent debates about the French language. Many topics in these debates are not so new, such as the inseparable link between language and nation, the enduring notions of clarity, logic and rayonnement as well as the idea of the universality and humanism of French, as evidenced in writings on francophonie. The freedom of writing in a popular genre enables Vargas to comment obliquely on these questions of language, to challenge assumptions and to propose an alternative view of both language and universality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]