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Professor Barjasteh to present "Deceit, Desire and the Diary: Eugenie de Guerin's 'Journal'"

By David Gonnerman '90
February 22, 2005

St. Olaf College Associate Professor of French Jolene Barjasteh will present "Deceit, Desire and the Diary: Eugenie de Guerin's 'Journal'" on Thursday, Feb. 24, at 7 p.m. in Viking Theater, Buntrock Commons. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is the second and final of this year's 23rd Annual Carl Mellby Memorial Lecture Series.

Barjasteh&Journal
Barjasteh with a 19th-century English translation of de Guerin's journal.
Barjasteh's lecture will discuss the work of Eugenie de Guerin (1805-48), the daughter of an impoverished aristocratic family who lived a seemingly solitary life in the Tarn region of France. In the 1830s, the height of the Romantic period in French literature, de Guerin engaged in a lively exchange of letters and diaries with her brother, Maurice, a student and writer in Paris. Her writing is filled with meditations and musings, poetry and religious fervor. Barjasteh says the journal, published posthumously, can be read and interpreted on many levels: as confession, as Romantic literature, as social commentary on gender inequality and as an autobiography. Her presentation will touch on all of these possible interpretations.

Currently in her 21st year on the St. Olaf faculty, Barjasteh received her doctorate from the University of Illinois in 1984, specializing in 19th-century French literature. She teaches courses at all levels of language, literature and culture and has led study-travel programs to Cannes and Paris. Barjasteh also teaches "Special Methods for Foreign Languages" in the Education Department.

Barjasteh is in her second teaching cycle of The Great Conversation at St. Olaf, a program that introduces students to the major epochs of Western tradition through direct encounter with significant works. "This has been the most challenging teaching I've done while at St. Olaf," she says. "I'm grateful to have the opportunity to work with exceptional students who love to read and discuss great texts as much as I do." Barjasteh's "Great Con" colleagues include Professor of English Diana Postlethwaite, Professor of History Laurel Carrington and Professor of Religion Edmund Santurri, who directs the program.

As chair of the advisory committee to the St. Olaf World Language Center, Barjasteh is active in the Foreign Languages Across the Curriculum program and has worked with the general education committee, the curriculum and educational policies committee and the review and planning committee.

The annual Mellby Memorial Lectures are given in remembrance of Dr. Carl A. Mellby and were established to let St. Olaf faculty members share their research with others. Mellby, known as "the father of the social sciences" at St. Olaf, started the first courses in economics, sociology, political science and art history at the college. He was professor and administrator from 1901 until 1949, taught Greek, German, French, religion and philosophy, and is credited with creating the college's honor system.

With Meredith Utt '08.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.