Jonathan David Walsh
Chair, Associate Professor of French, Coordinator of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies
Office: Meneely 106
Phone: (508) 286-3613
Fax: (508) 285-8263
Email: jwalsh@wheatoncollege.edu
Degrees
Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara
B.A., University of Connecticut, Storrs
Research Interests
The French novel; Psychoanalysis and literature; Symbolic economies in literature. My research focuses on eighteenth-century French novels, essays and newsletters.
Teaching Interests
I teach courses on French language, culture and literature, especially the novelists, the philosophes and cinema. The French often refer to film as "the seventh art," an indication of its prestige as a genre. I teach a course in English called "French Cinema: New Wave and Newer" in which we explore innovative French films since the 1960s. My "Introduction to French Culture" addresses questions of French national identity and integration into the European Community. I also teach a new course on Francophone women authors from France, Canada, Haiti, Martinique, Senegal, Cameroun and Tunisia. Through the lense of postmodern French feminist ideas (Cixous, Leclerc, et al), we read the fiction of some great women writers (including Duras, Ernaux, Ba, Beyala, Djebar).
Other Interests
Serge Gainsbourg. Salt-Water Fishing. The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker.
Student Projects
I have directed several Senior theses in French, including three honors theses: Estelle Soule's "Problems of Immigration in the French Public Schools, 1989-1994"; Julie Arseneau's "The Future of Quebec and anglo-francophone relations in event of a 'No' vote on Independence"; and Tonya Tilden's "The Spectacle of Power: the Image of Louis XIV through the Customs and Costume of his Court." These projects have been a rewarding learning experience for me and I look forward to directing others. They are available in the Wallace Library Archives.
Selected Publications, Creative Work or Performances
on Abbé Prévost, Marcel Proust and Enlightenment authors appear in French Review, Romance Quarterly, Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, and Esprit Créateur. See also my book, Abbé Prévost's Histoire d'une Grecque moderne: Figures of Authority on Trial, Summa Publications, 2001.