Spring Speaker Series: E.G. Wilson
The Power of Melancholy
E.G. Wilson establishes key differences between depression and melancholy as this distinction exists in certain elements of Western humanism. He also explores the primary virtues of melancholy: self-revelation and creativity. This leads to a discussion of the generative powers of incompleteness and death. Included in the talk are the works of such figures as Marsilio Ficino, John Keats, and Carl Jung.
Wilson is the Thomas H. Pritchard Professor of English at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. He holds a Ph.D. in English from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where he specialized in the study of British and American Romanticism. He has recently turned his training in the psychology of literature into a major new trade title, Against Happiness (2008)—a book that challenges the recent happiness trend and celebrates the meditative virtues of melancholy.
General Admission: $10, Students: $5, Friends of the Center: FREE
