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Conference Schedule

Celebrating the Centenary of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth

June 23-25, 2005, Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY

Conference Co-chairs: Judith Saunders, Marist College, and Julie Olin-Ammentorp, Le Moyne College

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Noon-5 p.m. Registration, Henry Hudson Room, Fontaine Hall

3-5 p.m. Welcome Tea,* St. Ann's Hermitage (formerly the Newbold Carriage House)
Welcoming remarks (4 p.m.): Judith Saunders, Marist College, and Julie Olin-Ammentorp, LeMoyne College.

6 p.m. Dinner * in The Cabaret (Student Center)

7:30 p.m. Welcoming remarks: Thomas Wermuth, Dean, School of Liberal Arts, Marist College; Donna Campbell, President, Edith Wharton Society.

Keynote Address: Alan Price (University of Pennsylvania-Hazleton) will introduce Prof. Martha Banta, UCLA, keynote speaker.

Friday, June 24
8:45-10:00 a.m. Concurrent Sessions I

IA."Other Lilies I" (papers from a forthcoming collection of new essays on The House of Mirth ) Fontaine 103

Chair, Janet Beer (Manchester Metropolitan University)

1. "Lily Bart and Her Country Cousins: Further Dialogues with Family Fictions," Pamela Knights (University of Durham)

2.  "Is Lily Gay?" Katherine Joslin (Western Michigan University)

3.  " The House of Mirth in Context: Genred Locations," Janet Beer and Elizabeth Nolan (Manchester Metropolitan University)

IB. "Lily and Money: Buying, Selling, Gambling" Fontaine 104

Chair: Susan Elizabeth Sweeney (Holy Cross College)

1.  "Shopping for Survival: Conspicuous Consumerism in The House of Mirth and Glasgow's The Wheel of Life, " Anne-Marie Evans (University of Sheffield)

2.  "Strolling through the Market: Women, Men, and Consumer Culture in The House of Mirth and Dreiser's Sister Carrie, " Jessica Lyn Van Slooten (Michigan State University)

3.  "Chance Encounters: Gambling and Citizenship in The House of Mirth, " Naomi C. Reed (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)

IC. "Individual Identity and Cultural Neurosis in The House of Mirth " Fontaine 105

Chair: Claire Garcia (Colorado College)

1. "Lily Bart and Lily Briscoe," Jelena Pralas (University of Montenegro)

2. "Wharton's The House of Mirth, Janowitz's A Certain Age, and America's Post-Colonial Neurosis about Manners," Hildegard Hoeller (City University of New York)

10:00-10:30 Coffee Break*

10:30-11:45 Concurrent Sessions II

IIA. "Other Lilies II" (see IA) Fontaine 103

Chair, Pamela Knights (University of Durham)

1. "'Seeing a Disfigurement': Reading the Gothic in The House of Mirth, " Kathy Fedorko (Middlesex Community College)

2. " The House of Mirth and the Pictorial Imagination," Edie Thornton (University of Wisconsin-Whitewater)

IIB. "Historical Approaches to The House of Mirth " Fontaine 104
Chair, Irene Goldman-Price (independent scholar)

1. "Submerged Anarchism: Revolution and Evolution in The House of Mirth," Ferda Asya (Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania)

2. "The De[-Con]struction of Domesticity in the Progressive Era: Lily and Her Sisters," Annette L Benert (De Sales University)

3. "Any Angels in the House? Marriage, Adultery, and Divorce in The House of Mirth, " Deborah Hecht (Touro Law Center)

IIC. "Body, Death, and Art in The House of Mirth " Fontaine 105
Chair, Laura Saltz (Colby College)

1. "'Aspice Lilias': Dante Rossetti's Ghost in The House of Mirth, " Emily Orlando (Tennessee State University)

2. "Picture Perfect: The Portrait of an Object in A Son at the Front and The House of Mirth, " Taylor Joy Mitchell (San Diego State University)

3. "Sex, Seduction, Suicide: Disciplinary Cultures in The House of Mirth, " Carol Singley (Rutgers University-Camden)

11:45-12:45 Box Lunch*

12:45-2:00 Concurrent Sessions III

IIIA. " The House of Mirth and Race" Fontaine 103
Chair: Hildegard Hoeller (City University of New York)

1. "'Slavery's Shadows Fall Even There': Black Surrogacy in The House of Mirth, " Claire Garcia (Colorado College)

2. "Her 'Real' Race Unveiled: Lily Bart in The House of Mirth, " Tiffany Aldrich MacBain (University of California-Davis)

3. "Passing Through The House of Mirth : The Figure of the Europeanized American in Wharton's Early Fiction," Jasmina Starcevic (Purdue University)

4. "Something About Lily: Class and Race in The House of Mirth, " Cynde Hall (University of California-Riverside)

IIIB. "Teaching The House of Mirth I: A Round-Table Discussion." Fontaine 104

Chair: Linda Costanzo Cahir (Kean University)

Panelists: Kristin O. Lauer (Fordham University)

Margaret Murray (Western Connecticut State University)

IIIC. "Rising and Falling in The House of Mirth " Fontaine 105

Chair: Carole Shaffer-Koros (Kean University)

1. "Reflections and Fictions in The House of Mirth and The Custom of the Country, " Elaine Toia (SUNY Rockland Community College)

2. "Money Changes Everything: Lily Bart, Simon Rosedale and the Business of Wharton's The House of Mirth ," Virginia Mastromonaco (Fordham University)

3. "'Beyond!': Illusions of Ascent and Transcendence in the World of Lily Bart," Frederick Wegener (California State University-Long Beach)

2:15-3:30 p.m. Concurrent Sessions IV

IVA. "Teaching The House of Mirth II: Approaches" Fontaine 103

Chair: Elsa Nettels (College of William and Mary)

1. "Portraits of 'Old' and 'New' New York: Crane's Maggie and Wharton's The House of Mirth in the Classroom," Martha Billips (Transylvania University)

2. "'The Emptiness of Renunciation': Evidence of the Body in The House of Mirth, " Carolyn Foster Segal (Cedar Crest College)

3. "Teaching The House of Mirth: Chapter 1 as a Microcosm of the Novel," Suzanne Fournier (Providence College)

IVB. "Literary Criticism of The House of Mirth : A Re-evaluation" Fontaine 104

Chair: Donna Campbell (Washington State University)

1. "A History of Genre Criticism of The House of Mirth, " Helen Killoran (Ohio University-Lancaster)

2. "Writing Like a Man: Gender and First Readers in The House of Mirth, " Emily Seelbinder (Queens University of Charlotte)

3. "Center Staging Simon Rosedale: Edith Wharton and the New Anti-Semitism," Annette Zilversmit (Long Island University-Brooklyn Center)

 

3:30-4:00 p.m. Coffee Break*

4:00-5:15 p.m. Plenary Session: Recent Adaptations of The House of Mirth

Performing Arts Room (Student Center)

Speakers: Jonathan Bank, Artistic Director, The Mint Theater (1999 stage adaptation of the novel, adapted from the Wharton-Clyde Fitch version)

Rachel Dickstein and Emily Morse, Ripe Time (2005 stage version of the novel).

20-25 minute presentations; question-and-answer to follow.

Dinner on your own.

7:45 p.m. Plenary Session

Terence Davies' film adaptation of The House of Mirth
Performing Arts Room (Student Center)

Linda Costanzo Cahir (Kean University) and Edie Thornton (University of Wisconsin-Whitewater) will deliver brief introductory remarks. Screening will conclude about 10:15 p.m.

Saturday, June 25
8:45-10:00 a.m. Concurrent Sessions V

VA. "The House of Mirth and the Hudson Valley" Fontaine 103

Chair: Judith Saunders (Marist College)

1. "Reimagining the Hudson River Valley: The Ekphrastic Moment in The House of Mirth and Hudson River Bracketed, " Sharon Kehl Califano (University of New Hampshire)

2. "The Hudson River Valley in the Works of Edith Wharton: A Slide Show," Dale Flynn (University of California-Davis)

VB. "Theorizing The House of Mirth " Fontaine 104

Chair: Carol Singley (Rutgers University-Camden)

1. "Edith Wharton Pushes 'Beyond': Echoes of Nietzsche in The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence, " Stephenie Haenicke (Western Michigan University)

2. "The Death of Love: Sexuality, Secrets, and Settings in The House of Mirth and Summer, " Susan Hall (Cornell University)

3. "Girls in the House of Mirth: The Role of Reality Television in Gender Commodification and the Aesthetic Enterprise," Catherine Ramsden (Loyola University Chicago)

10:00-10:30 Coffee Break*

10:30-11:45 Concurrent Sessions VI

VIA. "Predecessors of The House of Mirth " Fontaine 103

Chair: Frederick Wegener (California State University-Long Beach)

1. "Edith Wharton's Dialogue with Susan Warner," Sharon Kim (Judson College)

2. "The Significance of Lily Bart's Body," Dana Kennedy (Tennessee State University)

3. "The Way We Live Now in The House of Mirth," Elsa Nettels (College of William and Mary)

VIB. " The House of Mirth and Genre" Fontaine 104

Chair: Margaret Murray (Western Connecticut State University)

1. "'Society Novel' or Social Critique? Wharton's The House of Mirth, David Graham Phillips' The Social Secretary, and Frank Norris' The Pit, "
Donna Campbell (Washington State University)

2. "Edith Wharton's Global Regionalism," James Ricker (San Diego State University)

3. "The Sleeping Beauty in The House of Mirth, " Susan Elizabeth Sweeney (Holy Cross College)

VIC. "Women's Lives, Marriage, and The House of Mirth " Fontaine 105

Chair: Clare Colquitt (San Diego State University)

1. "How to Marry into the Privileged Class," Ann Maioroff (Palomar College)

2. "A Shift In Perspective: Revealing Women's Lives In Edith Wharton's The
House of Mirth
And Ellen Glasgow's The Sheltered Life," Emily Glover (Miami University of Ohio)

3. "Marriage in The House of Mirth: Beyond Contracts," Jennifer Haytock (SUNY Brockport)

4. Paper Title TBA, Kimberly Vanderlaan, University of Delaware

11:45-12:30 Box lunch*

12:30-1:45 Plenary Session: Celebrating The House of Mirth

Performing Arts Room (Student Center)

Member of the Edith Wharton Society Executive Board read favorite passages from the novel and briefly discuss their importance: why the 100th anniversary of this novel is worth celebrating!

*Meals and coffee breaks with an asterisk are included in your conference fee.