Changing default \citet font in biblatex

Question

I'm using biblatex to manage my citation in a natbib style :

\usepackage[style=alphabetic,maxnames=6,natbib=true]{biblatex}

However when I use the \citet command, the author's name is in a \textsc font, I would like to change this behavior so that the font used is the default one, but I could not find how to do this in biblatex's documentation.

Answer 1

I guess you're also using \usepackage[french]{babel}? The French module in biblatex (french.lbx) formats last names in small capitals by providing this "local" definition of the \mkbibnamelast command:

\protected\def\mkbibnamelast#1{\textsc{\textnohyphenation{#1}}}

To restore this command to its "global" definition add the following to your preamble:

\DefineBibliographyExtras{french}{\restorecommand\mkbibnamelast}

In biblatex.def the global definition is:

\newcommand*{\mkbibnamelast}[1]{#1}

You can redefine this via \renewcommand*. The code in \DefineBibliographyExtras is hooked into citation commands and bibliography drivers. So the French definition will simply be restored to the "current" global definition.