"The French section has a number of professorswho have a feminist perspective," she says. "But Idon't think feminism is just one thing or oneperspective or one way of looking at the world."

"I think that the women who teach French atHarvard have many different ways of looking atliterature and culture and the history of ideasand I am disturbed at comments and questions thatlump people together in one category," she says.

Other professors say that the people teachingFrench cannot be classified feminist because it isjust one of many ways that the professors in thesection approach literature.

"I would say to a certain extent it's true, butI want to qualify that to say someone is feministis not saying a whole lot because every singlemember of the department is also practicing adistinct methodology, according to Naomi Schor, arecently tenured professor in the program.

Abby E. Zanger, assistant professor of romancelanguage and literatures, also believes it isinaccurate to label the French professorsfeminists.

"I think the [section] has lot of differentkinds of wide variety of approaches andpreparations," Zanger says. "I think feminist isone of many."

She cites the history of reading, study ofsurrealism, cultural studies, sociologicalapproaches and philosophical approaches as otherways to consider literature.

"We do a good job exposing our students to somany methods," she adds.

Narrow Focus?

But some French professors at otheruniversities say that Harvard's section seems tofocus too narrowly on feminist theory.

"It's good department, if somewhat uneven andunbalanced," says Edwin M. Duval, the director ofgraduate studies in French at Yale University.

"Generally, there is an emphasis on modernliterature and feminism, which is good, but thisin itself is not sufficient to make a truly solidand distinguished department," he adds.

"There is little emphasis on other things[besides feminism] so it's a question more ofbalance than of real strength," he says.

But professors in Harvard's program argue thattheir interest in feminism does not mean that theyneglect other areas in the field.

"I want to emphasize that this [interest] doesnot mean an exclusive attention to thesequestions." Suleiman says.