Christie McDonald, a world-renowned scholar of 18th-century French literature, accepted a tenured post in the Romance Languages and Literatures Department yesterday.

McDonald, a professor of French studies at the University of Montreal, will join Harvard's faculty next fall, filling one of the three empty positions for French professors in the department.

"We are all extremely excited," said Romance Languages and Literatures Department Chair Luis Fernandez Cifuentes. "She is a scholar of great range and extreme reputation."

McDonald said yesterday in a telephone interview that she has not established what she will teach at Harvard. Her latest project is a book examining questions of change in literary and philosophical texts, beginning in the 18th century, and their legal ramifications.

McDonald, who received her Ph.D. from Yale, published The Proustian Fabric in 1991 and is the editor of several books and essay collections on French literature.

Smith Professor of the French and Spanish Languages and Literatures Per Nykrog said McDonald has the expertise to teach a variety of courses on literature from the 18th century through the present. "We will get a very precious colleague," said Nykrog, who served on the search committee in charge of McDonald's selection.

Cifuentes said one of the department's two other positions in 19th century and Renaissance French literature should be appointed by the end of this academic year.

McDonald, who graduated from Mount Holyoke College, said she is looking forward to returning to the Americanliberal arts context after teaching at MontrealUniversity, which follows the more specializedEuropean university system taught in French.

"Harvard is an exciting and stimulating place,"McDonald said. "There are a lot of people in thedepartment whom I respect and like very much.