  Let $K$ be a knot in $S^3$ and $X$ its complement. We study deformations of
non-abelian, metabelian, reducible representations of the knot group
$\pi\_1(X)$ into $\mathrm{SL}(n,\mathbf{C})$ which are associated to a simple
root of the Alexander polynomial. We prove that certain of these metabelian
reducible representations are smooth points of the
$\mathrm{SL}(n,\mathbf{C})$-representation variety and that they have
irreducible deformations.

Geometric Topology