Le dernier Olivier. Le système onomastique dans Dominique de Fromentin

Abstract

Eugène Fromentin’s novel Dominique (1862) upholds the French tradition of the psychological novel during the era of realism. Roland Barthes interpreted the epicene name-title as a reflection of the protagonist’s gender and identity ambiguity. However, a thorough analysis of the novel’s onomastic system reveals its broader implications, which can greatly contribute to an overall interpretation. The various strategies employed, such as the use of epicene names, antonomasia, paronomasia, and anonymity, demonstrate Fromentin’s poetics of naming and its connection to a modern crisis of identity.