Jonathan David Walsh
Professor of French, Coordinator of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies
Degrees
Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara
B.A., University of Connecticut, Storrs
Research Interests
The French novel; Psychoanalysis and literature; Economics and literature. Empathy and the Novel. 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, jazz, reggae, ska, rock. Saltwater fishing. Design. The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker. Wine. Cheese. Gelato. Not necessarily in that order.
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.
Publications
„A Cultural Numismatics: the Œchain‚ of economics in Montesquieu‚s Persian Letters.‰ Forthcoming in Australian Journal of French Studies, Spring 2009.
„Edward Said‚s Humanism and Democratic Criticism: Bridging the Gap Between the Humanities and the Public Sphere in the Post-9/11 World.‰ The International Journal of the Humanities, vol. 4, 2006. Available at: www.humanities-journal.com
„National Identity, Sociability, and the European Enlightenment: the case of Le Journal Etranger (1754-62).‰ In The European Enlightenment in its Relation to the Other Great Cultures and Religions of the Eighteenth Century. Paris: Champion, 2004.
„Littérature et caractère national d'après Prévost et Grimm.‰ In L‚Abbé Prévost au tournant du siècle. SVEC 11 (2000): 103-110.
„Real and Symbolic Exchange in Prévost's Histoire d'une Grecque moderne.‰ The French Review 74.1 (October 2000): 94-105.
„Jealousy, Envy and Hermeneutics in Abbé Prévost's L'histoire d'une Grecque moderne and Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu..‰ Romance Quarterly 42.2 (1995): 67-81.
"Abbé Prévost's Histoire d'une Grecque moderne: Figures of Authority on Trial." Birmingham, Alabama: Summa Publications, 2001.