College Presents Final Lecture in the Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DATE: April 29, 2008

CONTACT: Lisa Saunders

(845) 574-4244

SUNY Rockland Community College Presents Final Lecture in the Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series

Free and open to the public

Suffern, NY - The SUNY Rockland Community College Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) presents the final lecture in its Spring '08 Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series.

Tuesday, May 6, 2:00 - 3:30 p.m.

Lecture: "Mirror, mirror, on the wall:  Edith Wharton's Looking-Glass and "'the emptiness of renunciation'"

Location: Technology Center, Room 8180, Rockland Community College, 145 College Rd., Suffern

Dr. Elaine M. Toia, Associate Professor, English, uses the contextual frame of classical myth and psychology to shed light on the feminine "essential self" in the fiction of American novelist, Edith Wharton.  It examines Wharton's use of mirrors, both real and metaphorical, to create social/psychological portraits of three of her most well-known heroines:  May Welland in books, "The Age of Innocence (1920)," Undine Spragg in "The Custom of the Country (1913)," and Lily Bart in "The House of Mirth (1905)."  All three women depend for self-definition on what the mirror on the wall tells them, but Wharton's looking-glass does more than reflect the surface.  It reveals a darker, psychological landscape that threatens the existence of the social self and exposes what Lacan calls "lack of being"—or, according to Wharton's narrator, "the emptiness of renunciation" ("The House of Mirth"). Contact: etoia@sunyrockland.edu, 845-574-4703.

Admission: Free and open to the public. 

For more information, contact Dr. Liya Li, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, at (845) 574- 4733 or lli@sunyrockland.edu.

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Rockland Community College, a unit of the State University of New York, is located 25 miles northwest of NYC. The majority of its students transfer to four-year colleges, and many find immediate employment upon earning their associate's degree or certificate. The College also offers others, from preschoolers to senior citizens, the opportunity to simply learn something new. Quality education...at a price you can afford.