LeGouis Joins Tenured Faculty

Catherine LeGouis, recently tenured associate.professor of French, at home with Catullus, her Siamese cat

Upon walking into Catherine LeGouis's elegant apartment on Bridgman Lane (across from Skinner Hall), I was greeted by her Siamese cat. "Catullus," LeGouis offers, "is a good faculty cat and loves students!" I found this to be true when Catullus tried to climb on me while I was taking notes. The cat is clearly a major part of LeGouis's household.

This semester marks the beginning of her seventh year of teaching on campus, and LeGouis, recently tenured associate professor of French, is full of enthusiasm. "Mount Holyoke students are intense, motivated, and serious. They are exceptional women--not only in their abilities, but also in their warmth and generosity."

LeGouis recently finished a book, Positivism and Imagination, about the influence of science on literary history in the nineteenth century. Currently, LeGouis--who is fluent in Russian as well as French--and Alexander Woronzoff-Dashkoff, professor of Russian at Smith College, are re-editing in French the memoirs of Princess Dashkova, a lady-in-waiting to Catherine the Great. LeGouis and Dashkoff hope to capture the full flavor of eighteenth-century French as spoken by the Russian aristocracy.

Of course French is something of great interest to LeGouis; she spent her life in France until age twenty-three. She received her licence, the equivalent to a bachelor of arts, at the Sorbonne in Paris. She then earned her PhD in comparative literature, specializing in French and Russian, at Yale University.

LeGouis is teaching two courses this semester and chairing the interdisciplinary course Pasts and Presences in the West, for which she recently organized an all-day reading of Homer's Odyssey. LeGouis is also chair of the European studies program. During her years on campus, LeGouis has taught introductory French literature, intermediate French, and seminars on French prose.

LeGouis particularly enjoys the French in Action series, a language instruction program employed by the French department in beginning French courses. LeGouis appreciates how the program, a video-based method, "gives students a realistic picture of France and French culture, warts and all." She also enjoys teaching literature seminars in which students focus closely on a specific topic.

LeGouis is "enjoying tenure very much, especially the opportunity it affords me to plan long-term projects." Likewise she enjoys working in the French department, where she praises her colleagues' expertise and the major program.

Interviewed by Susan Lockery '96